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Matt Hancock has described how vaccines will be implemented in England, including the use of “conference centers and sports venues”.
Five million doses will arrive in the UK in the next few months and will begin to be administered.
But the effort will be “one of the largest civil logistics efforts we have faced as a nation,” according to the Secretary of Health.
The vaccine must be stored in extremely cold temperatures for most of its journey to be effective.
Speaking to MPs in the House of Commons, Hancock outlined how ministers will manage the rollout, with sports centers, hospitals and GP clinics all playing a vital role.
He said: “While we start vaccination next week, most of the vaccinations will be in the new year, but I urge anyone who receives vaccination from the NHS to respond quickly to protect themselves, their loved ones. dear ones and your community.
“Over the next several months, we will see that vaccines will be administered in three different ways.
(Image: via REUTERS)
“First, we will start vaccinations in hospital centers.
“Second, we will implement it through local community services, including GPs and eventually pharmacies as well.
“Third, we will install vaccination centers in conference centers and sports venues, for example, to vaccinate large numbers of people as more vaccines are introduced.
“This is an important step but we have not achieved it yet and so I want to emphasize that we must all continue to play our role, follow the new rules that the House overwhelmingly approved yesterday and remember basic concepts like ‘Hands, Face, Space’ and make yourself a test “.
The Prime Minister confirmed that older people in nursing homes and their caregivers are first on the list to receive a Covid-19 vaccine after the UK became the first country in the world to approve a jab from Pfizer and BioNTech. .
The jab has been shown in studies to be 95% effective and works for all age groups.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI), which advises ministers, said vaccines should first be offered to older people in nursing homes and to nursing home workers.
Next on the priority list are those aged 80 and over and front-line healthcare workers.
Everyone 75 and older should be vaccinated next, followed by those 70 and older and clinically “extremely vulnerable” individuals, he said.
The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, enough to vaccinate 20 million people with two doses, administered 21 days apart.
Hancock said 800,000 doses of the jab will arrive next week, with millions more arriving in the coming weeks.
Studies on the vaccine show that it should be stored at minus 70 ° C, but it is also stable between 2 ° C and 8 ° C for a short time, which means that it could possibly be shipped to different locations.
(Image: REUTERS)
Labor leader Keir Starmer lobbied Boris Johnson on the Prime Minister’s Questions on the practicalities of bringing the vaccine to nursing homes.
He said: “What plans have you put in place to address these particular problems of getting the vaccine safely and quickly in nursing homes, given the practical difficulties of doing so and the anxiety that those in nursing homes will have for get it quickly? “
Johnson responded: “It must be kept below 70 ° C, as I think the House understands, so there are logistical challenges to overcome in order for vulnerable people to have access to the vaccine they need.
“We are working on this with the four delegated administrations to make sure that the NHS across the country is capable, and it is the NHS that will be in the lead, to distribute it as quickly and sensibly as possible to the most vulnerable groups. . “
Care England, a leading group of members of healthcare providers, said it had not received clear communications from the government, but thought it was unlikely that the Pfizer vaccine could be easily distributed in nursing homes.
However, Sean Marett, BioNTech’s chief commercial officer, said otherwise.
He said in a briefing: “Now we have stability studies that really support the evidence of being able to transport up to six hours at 2 ° C to 8 ° C, so you can really take the vials from the vaccination center, one of the largest. , put them in a bag between 2C and 8C and take them to nursing homes where they can be administered directly to patients. “
He added: “If you store the vaccine in a refrigerator, you can store it for up to five days.
“If you want to take some of those vials out of the refrigerator that contain the vaccine and send them to a local nursing home, you have to do it within six hours at 2 ° C to 8 ° C.”
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Welfare said that the Regulatory Agency for Medicines and Health Products (MHRA) had approved the jab after “months of rigorous clinical trials and extensive analysis of the data by experts” from the regulator.
He said they have concluded that the vaccine has “met their strict standards for safety, quality and efficacy.”
Mr Hancock told Sky News that the UK was the first country in the world to have a “clinically licensed vaccine” and that it would be deployed “as quickly as it is manufactured”.
He added: “The MHRA, the fiercely independent regulator, has clinically authorized the deployment of the vaccine.
“The NHS is ready for that to happen.”
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