The National Health Service has denied a media report that claimed it has not committed to delivering two million COVID-19 jabs a week.
The Daily Telegraph had said the NHS declined to make the commitment due to the supply of vaccines and issues of logistics including creating an army of vaccinators to deliver the biggest vaccination programme in history
As the CMO has said, the main barrier to vaccine delivery will be availability of the vaccine, and it is completely untrue that staffing constraints are currently standing in the way of vaccine rollout, with the NHS ready to deliver vaccine as supply becomes available,” a spokeswoman said in an email to the Reuters News Agency
“The NHS is off to a strong start vaccinating one million people and now beginning the rapid rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca, which will enable us to vaccinate millions more people with the support of tens of thousands of vaccinators,” the spokeswoman added.
Meanwhile Six hospitals in England will administer the first of around 530,000 doses Britain has ready. The programme will be expanded to hundreds of other British sites in the coming days, and the government hopes it will deliver tens of millions of doses within months.
“This is a pivotal moment in our fight against this awful virus and I hope it provides renewed hope to everybody that the end of this pandemic is in sight,” health minister Matt Hancock said in a statement.
