Revealed, first 7 superhubs to REALLY get things going...
MINISTERS last night revealed the locations of the first seven mass vaccination centres – as it emerged that London’s was supposed to have opened three weeks ago.
In a bid to vaccinate the 13million in the four top priority groups by mid-February, the Government announced that the hubs would be open for business from next week.
Officials neglected to mention that the site at the ExCeL conference centre in the capital had initially been scheduled to start delivering jabs on December 14. The other six regional vaccination centres opening within days are at Epsom Racecourse; the Etihad Tennis Centre in Manchester; the Centre for Life science village in Newcastle; the Millennium Point venue in Birmingham; Robertson House in Stevenage; and Ashton Gate Stadium, home to Bristol City football club.
The ExCeL will be at the centre of the ‘London Mass Vaccination Programme’, operating seven days a week from 8am to 8pm.
But the huge venue, which is also the site of a Nightingale hospital for coronavirus patients, should already be open and vaccinating the vulnerable, according to a handbook produced for volunteers by the Barts Health NHS Trust.
It states: ‘The Vaccination Centre is due to open on December 14. It will then steadily increase its capacity, and is planned to be working a full capacity by April 2021.’
Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said: ‘Everybody now believes the only really reliable way out of this crisis is to get as many people as possible vaccinated as soon as possible.
‘Any delays to that prolong the harm – to health, the economy and education – that the pandemic is doing. Operational delays to the opening of mass vaccination centres should not be happening, as we have had time to plan for this.’
Other buildings under consideration for vaccination centres include the Black Country Living Museum and Villa Park, home of Aston Villa football club. Other London sites which have been offered up for use by the NHS include the nightclub G-A-Y.
‘Delays should not happen’