The National Health Service (NHS) will deploy hundreds of staff to five sites in November to inject COVID-19 vaccines to thousands of people, according to leaked documents as reported by The Sun.
These leaked papers shows that deployed NHS staff, which are joined by paramedics and trainee nurses in each mass vaccination center will offer coronavirus jabs as soon as early November. Centers will be in London, Hull, and Leeds, but a total of five will be working by Christmas, if things go according to plans.
Also, pharmacists and general practitioners will be helping in the mass vaccination as mobile units will be deployed in care homes and vulnerable communities. Moreover, it has also been proposed to include dieticians, chiropodists, and vets in administering the vaccines if regulations will be relaxed to permit the suggestion.
While these plans indicate the vaccine will roll out by the end of October, the European Medicines Agency and UK regulators are yet to give out approval for administering the vaccines. Until then, the schedule may be on a stand still.
"The earliest we are likely to get the first trial results is in a month's time - which means the best case scenario for a potential roll out is just before Christmas," an anonymous source told The Sun adding that authorities are carefully planning to avoid any interruption on giving out vaccines "once we have a working jab.'
Meanwhile, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Sunday, October 4, that the military will lend hand in the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. He said during the Tory conference held online that they have already planned to make the armed forces assist the NHS in the rollout. The health secretary noted that the vaccine brings "great hope" in eliminating the deadly coronavirus.
The top vaccine candidate
The Oxford University leads the vaccine race as it has been conducting trials since April. While waiting for regulators to approve the vaccines before Christmas, the U.K. government has already pre-ordered the Oxford vaccines with about 100 million doses.
Since these vaccines two shots to be deemed effective, although it is yet to be proven successful, the government's order would only cover about 50 million individuals. These jabs will be administered 28 days apart and it will require administering about 600,000 shots per day to administer two doses among 53 million adults within six months.
Hancock said the jabs will be given to people according to priorities. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has proposed the following order in vaccine administration:
- care home workers and residents
- social and health care workers and people aged 80 and above
- all people aged 75 and above
- people aged 70 to 74
- people aged 65 to 69
- high-risk people under 65 years old who have underlying health conditions
- moderate-risk people under 65 years old who have underlying health conditions
- people aged 60 to 64
- people aged 55 to 59
- all those 50 years old and above
- other members of the population, although the priority is yet to be announced
The UK vaccine task force head Kate Bingham said that only around 30 million people, or less than half of the U.K.'s 67 million population will receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
"We just need to vaccinate everyone at risk," said Bingham adding that those who are below 18 years old will not receive a dose.
Read also : Oxford University 80% Confident their Breakthrough COVID-19 Vaccine Could Be Ready By September
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Written by CJ Robles
