Seven centers will open on Monday as the UK government is accelerating efforts to tackle the virus.
The UK government will open seven massive vaccination centers on Monday as part of efforts to accelerate the introduction of COVID-19 vaccinations that the government plans to deliver to all vulnerable people by mid-next month.
The country, which was the first to approve vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca, is currently immunizing about 200,000 people a day, health secretary Matt Hancock said on Sunday.
According to government data, about 1.3 million people had received their first dose of the two-dose vaccination on Jan. 3, but the UK must inoculate two million people a week to meet its target of vaccinating people in care homes. 70s, the clinically vulnerable people with pre-existing conditions, and health and social care providers by Feb. 15.
Britain is hoping for rapid immunization so that life can return to some degree of normalcy by spring in the Northern Hemisphere, even as it tackles a rapidly escalating pandemic.
In addition to the seven major centers, Britain is also turning to 1,000 clinics, 223 hospitals and 200 community pharmacies to deliver the vaccinations, vaccination minister Nadhim Zahawi said in a statement. The armed forces will also be deployed to support the National Health Service.
100-year-old Ellen Prosser, known as Nell, receives the first dose of the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in a London nursing home. UK wants all nursing home residents, over-70s, vulnerable people and health and care providers to receive the vaccine by mid-February [Kirsty O’Connor/Pool Photo via AP Photo]
“By working together day and night, they will ensure that our vaccines end up in the guns instead of on the shelves,” Zahawi said. British forces will use techniques derived from decades of experience to get things done in the most difficult conditions imaginable. They will bring the courage and genius they showed in places like Iraq and Afghanistan to these shores. “
Health Minister Matt Hancock will outline his vaccination plan for COVID-19 – the largest vaccination program in British history – later on Monday.
“The UK’s vaccine delivery plan will be the cornerstone of our exit from the pandemic, but we must all continue to play our part by staying at home, following the rules and keeping hands, face and space ahead when we’re gone and about, ”he said in a statement.
About 81,567 people in the UK have died from COVID-19, the fifth highest official death toll in the world. More than three million people have tested positive for the corona virus.
The centers include the 4,000-bed ‘Nightingale’ field hospital set up in the ExCel exhibition center in East London, the Epsom racecourse west of the capital and a massive leisure center in Manchester.
Ambulances outside NHS Nightingale hospital in East London’s ExCel center, which will also become a mass vaccination hub [Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP]