Anti-vaxxer movement in UK is not growing, says health minister

UK health minister delivers COVID-19 update

LONDON (Reuters) - The anti-vaxxer movement in the United Kingdom is not growing and an increasing number of people want to have a vaccine against COVID-19, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Wednesday.

"The good news is that it's not growing. We monitor this very carefully and actually the number of people who want to have the vaccine is increasing, and that's good because obviously that's the right thing to do," he said on LBC radio.

Hancock was speaking shortly after an announcement that Britain's medicines regulator had approved the Pfizer vaccine and that vaccination would start next week.

"The regulators are fiercely independent, they would not approve this if it wasn't safe," Hancock said.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Kate Holton)