The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has launched a new national agency to plan for, prevent and respond to future health threats including infectious disease.

The UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) will be led by Jenny Harries, who previously served on the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and has also worked in the NHS and local government at local, regional and national levels.

The agency has been created to enable the UK to rapidly respond to and deal with pandemics and future health threats, with its initial work focused on the continued response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It will bring together the UK’s health security science capabilities, data analytics and genomic surveillance with at scale testing and contact tracing capability – combining key elements of Public Health England with NHS Test and Trace including the Joint Biosecurity Centre.

It will also work with global partners, becoming a mainstay of what the Prime Minister and other international leaders have called “a more robust international health architecture that will protect future generations”, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.

“The pandemic has put the UK’s health security capabilities in sharp focus and the UKHSA will change the way we approach health protection,” Harries said. “With the creation of the UKHSA, we have an unprecedented opportunity to build on the scientific and operational strength that has been developed, learn from the past and further develop strong bonds with health protection leadership from global to local, to ensure we are ready for the challenges of the future.”

The UKHSA will be chaired by Ian Peters, currently chair of Barts Health NHS Trust and former chief executive of British Gas, managing director of NatWest Small Business Services, and chairman of several data driven growth technology companies.

The UK’s COVID-19 vaccination programme prevented 10,400 deaths in people aged 60 and older in England up to the end of March, according to an analysis by Public Health England (PHE).

From December 8, 2020, to the end of March this year over 15 million vaccine doses were given to adults aged 60 and over.

PHE’s analysis compared the observed number of deaths with the number of deaths that would have been expected if the vaccine hadn’t been given during this time period.

Assuming that it would take 31 days before the effect of vaccination on deaths is observed, PHE estimates that around 10,400 deaths were prevented to the end of March – 9,100 in those aged 80 and over, 1,200 in those aged 70 to 79 and 100 in those aged 60 to 69.

The analysis takes into account the direct effects of vaccines, but noting that there is now increasing evidence that vaccines also help to reduce transmission, the agency said it is likely that an even higher number of deaths will have been prevented by the vaccination programme.

“This latest analysis is further evidence that the COVID-19 vaccinations are continuing to prevent hundreds of deaths every day. I would encourage anyone who is offered a vaccine to take it as soon as possible,” said Dr Mary Ramsay, PHE head of Immunisation.