New plea for sailors to be given Covid vaccine
Overseas mission looms on horizon
FRESH calls have been made for thousands of Royal Navy personnel to be given their coronavirus vaccine ahead of a major deployment of Britain’s carrier strike group.
The plea came as HMS Queen Elizabeth – the navy’s flagship which will spearhead the task force in May – arrived back home in Portsmouth yesterday after a three-week stint at sea.
About 3,000 naval personnel – many of whom are based in Portsmouth – are expected to take part in the overseas mission, which will see the £3.2bn flotilla visiting the Mediterranean, Gulf and Indo-Pacific.
The task group, touted by the navy as ‘Europe’s most powerful’, will involve two Type 45 destroyers, two Type 23 frigates, support vessels from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and an American guidedmissile destroyer.
But a retired Warrant Officer, whose son is serving as part of the carrier strike group, said Britain was ‘missing a trick’ and could be putting lives at risk by not giving crews their jabs.
The military veteran, who lives in Horndean, has written to Meon Valley MP Flick Drummond to urge Whitehall to provide 6,000 doses of the vaccine – enough for sailors to receive both jabs during their deployment.
His plea comes weeks after The News demanded the government step in and ensure the men and women of the carrier strike group received the life-saving inoculation before they set sail.
Speaking to The News, the 67-year-old veteran – who asked not to be named – said: ‘This is disgusting. We should be looking after the servicemen that are being asked to go abroad. It’s only 6,000 doses maximum – that’s nothing.
‘There is a real concern on the ship. There is a great potential for the virus to spread – it could easily spread on the ship.
‘People can’t go on holiday. Yet we’re sending people on foreign journeys who will no doubt mix with others.
‘Some of them will be visiting Italy and Greece without protection from Covid, which is on the rise in Europe.
‘It just seems we’re missing a trick by not vaccinating them to make sure that they don’t get it.’
More than half of all adults in the UK – some 27.6m – have received their first vaccine, including a record-breaking 844,285 people on Saturday.
A government spokesman said ‘discussions with the Department for Health and Social Care colleagues’ were taking place.