Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has confirmed the UK’s armed forces could be drafted in to help deliver hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 vaccines every week, if the NHS requested their help.
His comments come after the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency approved its second vaccine, produced by pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University, for use on Wednesday.
With Astrazeneca set to deliver up to 2million doses of the vaccine on a weekly basis the army would be able to help immunise millions of vulnerable people over the winter.
Speaking to Times Radio, Mr Wallace said “I’ve got plans for up to 250 teams of mobile medically trained personnel who could go out and administer the vaccine around the country.
“That would be over 100,000 a day they could potentially deliver if that is requested by the NHS.”
Rollout of the new vaccine is expected to start on January 4th.
