Seven massive coronavirus vaccination sites opened in England on Monday as the government rushed to dose millions of people as a new form of the disease reigns across the country.
Venues include football stadiums and a horse racing track, and are located in cities such as Bristol, London, Newcastle and Manchester.
According to the National Health Service (NHS) in England, they have to vaccinate thousands a week and more sites are expected to follow.
“I feel very relieved,” said Moira Edwards, 88, after receiving her first vaccination at Epsom Downs Racecourse, south of London, which is more famous for the Derby.
‘I feel like this is the way back. I can’t understand that someone doesn’t want it. ‘
The predominantly elderly recipients of the injection, some of whom used walkers or sticks or were pushed in wheelchairs to get to the center, were given stickers saying “I’ve had my Covid vaccination.”
Hospitals and pharmacies will begin offering the vaccine later this week, and the government hopes to have doses available for 12 million of England’s 56 million residents by mid-February.
In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland a further 3 million are targeted by the same date.
Priority is given to the elderly, residents of care homes and workers, clinically extremely vulnerable people and health and social care personnel.
About 2.4 million people have already been vaccinated in the UK since the launch of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot on Dec. 8, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on a visit to Bristol.
That includes 40 percent of people over 80, and nearly a quarter of residents of retirement homes, he added, calling it a “race against time,” as the cases were blamed for the new variant.
Britain has now also approved the Oxford AstraZeneca and Moderna jabs and has brought in Army logistics experts to support the vaccination drive.
– ‘Worst weeks’ –
Britain is grappling with its worst outbreak since the beginning of last year.
The record number of cases and daily death toll are attributed to a new, more contagious strain, which has increased pressure on the NHS leading to warnings of shortages of intensive care beds.
The state-run NHS is in danger of being overwhelmed and the country is in its third lockdown until at least mid-February, with predictions that the restrictions could last even longer.
In Northern Ireland, health heads said the county’s hospitals were under severe pressure and two health systems needed to call in off-duty personnel to ease the pressure from the spike in cases.
“The next few weeks will be the worst weeks of this pandemic in terms of numbers at the NHS,” Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, told the BBC Monday.
“What we have to do for the vaccines to take effect … is we really have to double down” in observing lockdown measures, he added.
Britain said Saturday it had registered more than three million cases of coronavirus since the pandemic started last year.
On Friday, it reported a record 1,325 deaths over a 24-hour period of people who tested positive for the virus, with fears that the number of fatalities could remain consistently high for weeks.
The full death toll now stands at more than 80,000, the highest in Europe.
In Leatherhead, near Epsom, corpses were stored in a 1,400-capacity temporary mortuary because there was no room in local hospitals.
Lockdown rules include the closure of schools, but the government has been criticized for not moving forward, with indications of continued close contact. The government does not require people to wear masks outside.
But Johnson said that while the rules were kept in mind, adherence to existing guidelines would make a “huge, huge difference” in lowering infection rates.
He warned against “false confidence (and) false complacency” over the introduction of the vaccine, which aims to reach all adults by the end of October.
Britain was at “a very dangerous time,” he said. “Now is the time for maximum vigilance, maximum observation, compliance with the rules.”
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