THE BIG JABS FIGHTBACK STARTS TODAY
Super-hubs to vaccinate four people every minute but fears of tougher lockdown
THE mass vaccine programme kicks off today with the opening of seven super-hubs in England. Over-80s are being asked to book Covid-19 jabs at the centres, each capable of inoculating four people every minute. Scientists are calling for tougher lockdown rules, warning the UK is in “the eye of the storm” of the pandemic.
HEALTH Secretary Matt Hancock has promised that every adult in the UK will be offered a coronavirus vaccine by the autumn.
The Government is in a race against time to get the virus under control as hospitals in some parts of the country are days from being overwhelmed.
Mr Hancock said more than 200,000 vaccines a day were being administered and the country was on course to deliver two million jabs a week.
Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi said the “full vaccine deployment plan” beginning today followed months of preparation by the NHS, Armed Forces, and councils.
He said by the end of this week, as well as the seven super-hubs – each capable of inoculating up to four people a minute – there would be more than 1,000 GP-led vaccination sites, 223 in hospitals, and 200 in community pharmacies.
He said: “It means it won’t be too long before we can expand our programme down the priority list.”
England’s Chief Medical Officer Prof Chris Whitty has warned the NHS faces the “most dangerous situation” in living memory, with record deaths and hospital admissions. The number of patients with Covid-19 in hospital is at a record high in England, while the official coronavirus death toll for the UK passed 80,000 on Saturday.
Professor Whitty said: “Hospitals are always busy in winter.
“But the NHS in some parts of the country is currently facing the most dangerous situation anyone can remember.
“If the virus continues on this trajectory, hospitals will be in real difficulties, and soon. Stafftopatient ratios – already stretched
– will become unacceptable even in intensive care.” The ambulance service is also facing “unprecedented pressure”. Tracy Nicholls, chief executive of the College of Paramedics, said ambulances were waiting up to nine hours to offload patients at London hospitals. Deaths from Covid-19 rose by 573 yesterday, the highest rise on a Sunday for seven months. Another 54,940 cases were recorded, taking the total to 3,072,349, which is the fifth highest in the world.
The Government is focusing on the vaccination drive to curb the spread of the virus and start lifting the country out of lockdown.
Mr Hancock told the BBC yesterday: “The good news is that over the last week we’ve vaccinated more people than in the whole of December.”
But he admitted vaccines would have to be given to people in their 40s and 50s – as well as the highest priority groups – to be effective, but that was not expected until early summer.
The Health Secretary said the Government was on course to reach its target of vaccinating 15 million of the most vulnerable by mid-February.
Hospitals will be in real difficulties – and soon
PROF CHRIS WHITTY CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER
He said: “Yes, we’re on course. The rate-limiting factor at the moment is supply, but that’s increasing.
“I’m very glad to say that at the moment we’re running at over 200,000 people being vaccinated every day.
“We’ve now vaccinated around one third of the over-80s in this country so we’re making significant progress. But there’s still further expansion to go.”
He will set out the Government’s vaccines delivery plan at a Downing Street press conference this afternoon.
Nurses, doctors, physios and other NHS staff are also getting jabs at the hubs, along with social care and carehome workers. All care-home residents will have their vaccine by the end of this month, the Government has promised.
Boots will start Covid-19 jabs in Halifax, West Yorks, this week and further sites will open in Huddersfield and Gloucester in coming weeks.
There could be annual Covid vaccinations in future, although scientists say they may only be needed every few years. Prof Adam Finn, of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said the vaccine roll-out had already prevented thousands of hospital admissions.
He said the committee would draw up a plan by the middle of February for who gets the jab next.
He said: “There are broader considerations when it comes to people with different occupations and the relative importance of them in society.” But uncertainties remain over vaccine supply, which led to a switch in policy to delay administering second doses.
Government scientists are investigating whether the vaccines work on new mutations of the virus. Prof Peter Horby, of the Nervtag advisory committee, said that “so far” the data was encouraging. But he warned the virus “will not go away”.
He said: “We’re going to have to live with it, but that may change significantly. It may well become more of an endemic virus that’s with us all the time and may cause some seasonal pressures and some excess deaths, but is not causing the huge disruption that we’re seeing now.”
He said the virus would have to be managed with social- distancing measures for months to come.
The Queen and Prince Philip were vaccinated at Windsor Castle on Saturday. Actress Dame Joan Collins, 87, got her jab on the same day.
She announced on Instagram that she had received the Oxford University/AstraZeneca jab at the Bloomsbury Surgery in London.
Sharing a photo of herself being vaccinated, Dame Joan said it was “a painless and seamless procedure”, adding, “Same day as our Queen!”