NHS and Armed Forces join up to roll out vaccine this weekend
The NHS has joined with the Armed Forces to begin urgent preparations to roll out the Pfizer/Biontech vaccine by the weekend, with the drug set to hit London in the next few weeks.
Wide-scale vaccination will start in the next few days as the UK this morning became the first country in the world to approve a vaccine.
Military personnel have been called in to transform around 10 sites into vaccine hubs within a fortnight, including the Nightingale hospital at London’s Excel centre.
A major hospital trust in London expects Britain’s first coronavirus vaccinations to take place as early as Monday, according to the Telegraph.
Imperial College Healthcare Trust, which owns five hospitals in west London, is planning to inoculate frontline staff in an intensive three-day campaign over the next few weeks.
“The vaccine is the hope, help is on its way, but we have still got to get from here to there,” health secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News this morning.
“By the spring we are going to be through this, but let’s not let up and lose our resolve now.”
The Prime Minister welcomed the news this morning as “fantastic” and that vaccines will “ultimately allow us to reclaim our lives”.
Every major city in the UK is set to host its own mass vaccination centre, while a further 1,000 small sites will be established across England.
GP surgeries, pharmacies and small health clinics will be used to roll out vaccinations alongside repurposed sports centres and civic buildings.
The Pfizer vaccine is 95 per cent effective and has passed the requisite safety checks. The government has secured orders for 40m doses of the rug, alongside 317m doses of six other vaccines.