‘We have 39 days to meet jab target’
NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens has pledged there will be a “huge acceleration” in the vaccination programme over the coming weeks.
Sir Simon told a No10 press conference that they had 39 days to meet the target set by the Prime Minister to vaccinate the most vulnerable.
He said they would be increasing the supplies of the vaccine, the numbers of places where it is being delivered and the numbers administering the jabs.
“We need a huge acceleration if we are, over the next five weeks, going to vaccinate more people than we typically vaccinate over five months during a winter flu programme. We have got 39 days to do it,” he said.
He said the “bulk” of the vaccinations would be carried out at GP surgeries and pharmacies, but that the number of hospital hubs and large-scale vaccination centres were also being increased.
Sir Simon was speaking just after Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed that the most vulnerable groups which the Government plans to have vaccinated by mid-February accounted for 88% of all those who have died in the UK during the pandemic. He told the same Downing Street press briefing: “Our tactics are first to use the immense natural capacity of the NHS.
“By the end of the week, there will be over 1,000 GP-led sites providing vaccines, 223 hospital sites, seven giant vaccination centres and a first wave of 200 community pharmacies.
“If all goes well, these together should have the capacity to deliver hundreds of thousands of vaccines per day by January 15, and it is our plan that everyone should have a vaccination available within a radius of 10 miles. It follows from that that the limits will not be on our distributional power but on the supply of vaccines, and I have no doubt that we have enough supply to vaccinate these four groups by the February 15 deadline.
“We also have the distributional network to do it and to continue an expanding programme down the priority list.”
The Prime Minister added there would likely be “difficulties” in the rollout of the vaccine but that the army had been drafted in to assist with set-up.
“Let’s be clear, this is a national challenge on a scale like nothing we’ve seen before and it will require an unprecedented national effort,” he said.
“Of course, there will be difficulties, appointments will be changed, but the army is working hand in glove with the NHS and local councils to set up our vaccine network and using battle preparation techniques to help us keep up the pace.”
Mr Johnson’s comments came just as it was announced the number of Covid patients in hospital in England stood at a record 28,246 as of 8am yesterday, according to the latest NHS figures.