Army to work with the NHS to help distribute Covid vaccine once it is ready

THE Army will be called in to help roll out the coronavirus vaccine once it has been developed, Matt Hancock has announced.

The Health Secretary said the vaccine was the “great hope” that would allow the country to get back to normal, and the Government would do all it could to distribute it according to clinical need.

The military will work with the NHS to run supply chains across the country, he said.

“The plans are in train. A combination of the NHS and the Armed Forces are involved in the logistics of making the roll-out happen. Because it’s not just about developing the vaccine and then testing the vaccine – which is what’s happening now – it’s then a matter of rolling out the vaccine according to priority, according to clinical need.”

Mr Hancock echoed Boris Johnson’s words that there would be “bumpy months” ahead, but stressed that the Government hoped the country could have a normal Christmas. “We are working as hard as we can to get a vaccine as fast as is safely possible,” he said.

The Army has already been used to build Nightingale hospitals and work in mobile testing centres during the pandemic. Soldiers collect swabs from workplace testing centres and drive them to labs for analysis.

The Army has also been deployed in backroom roles within the police service, allowing more officers to get on to the street to enforce restrictions.

It is thought that, once the vaccine is ready, Nightingale hospitals could be repurposed as mass vaccination centres staffed by military personnel.

Plans on who will receive doses first are yet to be finalised, Mr Hancock said.

The UK has supply agreements with five vaccine trials, which he said meant the Government was not “putting all its eggs in one basket”.