Brits 80 and older to receive invitations to get vaccinated in UK

The U.K. is sending individuals ages 80 and over invitations to get a coronavirus vaccine, according to officials who spoke with the Associated Press.

The move will likely help the U.K. in its goal of immunizing 15 million people by the middle of February, the AP notes. So far the U.K. has given around 1.2 million people their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

According to the AP, more than 600,000 invitations seeking to encourage the elderly to sign up for vaccines at new centers near to them will be sent out in England this week.

On Saturday Buckingham Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth, 94, and her husband Prince Philip, 99, had received their first doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

The U.K. was the first country to approve Pfizer and BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine in December. The country approved Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine on Friday, bringing the number of COVID-19 vaccines available in the country up to 3 when including the one developed by British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca along with Oxford University.

The country is currently under its third lockdown, announced last week in the face of rising coronavirus cases. The new lockdown is similar to the one enacted in March, requiring people to work from home if possible and only go outside for essential needs, local exercise, medical needs or to flee from harm.

According to Johns Hopkins University’s tracker, the U.K. has confirmed over 3 million COVID-19 cases and over 81,000 deaths.