BRAKE CORONA CRISIS Drive-through jabs a PM urged to lift the massive success lockdown faster
We could vaccinate millions a week if we get the supply 23,684,103
It’s only a pilot at this stage, but it could be revolutionary in pointing the way to faster inoculation of the population.
The through-a-car-window operation, which can dramatically speed up the rate of jabs, depends vitally on the supply of vaccine keeping up and that cannot yet be guaranteed.
But rolling it out nationally would put us a game-changing further distance ahead in the race against the virus.
Hand in hand must be a radical improvement in the lamentable performance of Test and Trace.
All options to get us out of the nightmare of lockdown more quickly must be explored.
People have been resolute and patient. But we are beginning to feel our endurance stretched.
The optimistic mood presents a dilemma for a PM with a poor track record of getting decisions on lockdowns right.
Open up too soon and we risk another wave, as scientists have warned, on top of a more virulent flu outbreak expected this winter.
Delay too long and both the economy and the people will face unendurable strain.
The options on any step-bystep easing must continue to err on the side of safety.
But in the name of sanity, we need a break soon.
DRIVE-THROUGH vaccination centres could help put Brits on the road to freedom.
A pilot project saw 2,300 people receive the Covid jab in a single day – 360% more than in a clinic.
And the GP who masterminded the scheme says he could have vaccinated 6,000 people in a single weekend if he had more supplies.
Health bosses fear that unreliable vaccine supply could hamper any plans to scale up the scheme.
But the UK was this week boosted by news that up to 10 million extra doses of the Covid vaccine will be made available in the coming weeks. It comes as:
ALL OVER-40S could have their first dose of the vaccine by Easter.
EVERY ADULT will be offered at least one jab by June 10.
SPORTING EVENTS such as the FA Cup Final and World Snooker Championship open up to crowds.
BOOSTER JABS to protect against variants could be available from August.
The drive-through pilot in a car park near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, had a vaccination rate of almost five times the 500-a-day that medics can do in GP practices.
Dr Richard West, senior partner at Woolpit Health Centre, came up with the idea for drive-through centres.
He said: “We could be vaccinating millions of people a week using drivethroughs. If the Government really wants to crack on and get us back to normal, this is the way forward.”
A handful of other drive-through vaccination centres are already operating across England, including in Kent, Hertfordshire and Warwickshire.
There is currently no national framework in England but mass drivethroughs have been set up in Scotland and Wales. Patients have to park up for 15 minutes after their jab in case they suffer any side-effects.
Richard Vautrey, from the British Medical Association, said: “Drive-through clinics are a good idea. Some GPS have used them for flu jabs. We should be running them for Covid if we can.”
NHS England said: “Although we will continue to open more convenient vaccination centres as supply allows, it’s clear from our progress so far that the biggest factor in how quickly people can get a jab is the availability of supply.”
New studies show that one dose of the vaccine may be enough to protect against the worst effects of the virus if the recipient was previously infected with Covid.
To test new crowd safety measures, the
MORE than 70 MPS are pushing Boris Johnson to relax the lockdown measures sooner, despite a warning from the UK’S chief medical officer.
The Covid Recovery Group argues there will be “no justification” for restrictions once all over-50s have been offered a jab.
But Prof Chris Whitty has said that unlocking too quickly would be wrong. He told the Science and Technology Select Committee this week: people in the UK have been given their first jab. More than 1.4 million have also received their second dose.
TARGET
“If we unlock very suddenly, all the modelling suggests we would get a substantial surge while a lot of people are not protected.”
The first stage of the Government’s roadmap saw schools return in England on Monday.
Shops, indoor leisure and outdoor hospitality venues are due to open on April 12, followed by indoor mixing in homes, pubs and restaurants on May 17. A complete easing of