As seven new vaccine centres open today to deliver the vaccine, Health Secretary Matt Hancock will hold a press conference later today to provide detail about the Government’s vaccination plan and give an update on the numbers vaccinated so far.
The new vaccination ‘mega’ centres which include a football stadium and a tennis club, will be joined later in the week by hundreds of GP-led services and pharmacy-led pilot sites, which would take the total vaccination centres to around 1,200.
Speaking about the opening of the new centres Mr Hancock said said: “From today, the full scale of our plans will be published, so the public can be assured of the time, effort and resources that have gone and will go into ensuring we protect the British people from the scourge of this virus.”
The Government has set a target of having 15 million people, residents in care homes, older adults and their carers, vaccinated by mid-February, with every adult in the UK vaccinated by autumn.
Phase 2 of the rollout will be discussed at the JCVI meeting on Thursday and is understood to include people whose jobs put them at risk to Covid exposure, such as teachers, first responders, transport workers and public servants who are critical to the fight against the pandemic.
