The British armed forces will be involved in distributing a coronavirus vaccine across the UK ‘according to priority’, the Health Secretary has said.
Speaking at the Conservative Party conference on Sunday, Matt Hancock confirmed that a ‘combination of the NHS and the armed forces’ are already working on ‘making the rollout happen’.
He said the doses would be distributed based on a prioritisation list, noting that it was important to ‘get the vaccine to the people who are most likely to be badly affected by coronavirus first’.
Calling the vaccine a ‘great hope’, he told the conference: ‘The Prime Minister said this morning there will be some bumpy months ahead but we are working as hard as we can to get a vaccine as fast as is safely possible.
‘The plans are in train. A combination of the NHS and the armed forces are involved in the logistics of making this happen, making the rollout happen.
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‘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.
‘We have set out the order in which people will get it, we have set that out in draft pending the final clinical data.’
The government will calculate who to prioritise for the vaccine based on the advice of the independent Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation, a spokesperson said.
Their interim guidance said the order of priority should start with care home residents and staff, people aged 80 and above and health and social care workers, followed by the rest of the population in order of age and risk.
The spokesperson added: ‘An enormous amount of planning and preparation has taken place across Government to quickly roll out a safe and effective vaccine.’
Hancock also stated that the NHS Covid-19 app had now been downloaded more than 15,000,000 times, adding that it had ‘gone off the shelf… like digital hotcakes’.
Earlier on Sunday, Boris Johnson appeared on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show and warned that Brits could face a ‘bumpy’ ride to Christmas and into the New Year.
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Admitting that he understood many were ‘furious’ over the government’s handling of the pandemic, he said: ‘I appreciate the fatigue that people are experiencing… but we have to work together, follow the guidance and get the virus down whilst keeping the economy moving.’
Johnson also dismissed any claims he was still struggling with long-term effects of Covid-19 as ‘balderdash and nonsense’, adding: ‘I’m fitter than several butchers’ dogs’.
He said: ‘I think the reality is this is a government that is facing an unprecedented crisis and I think if people wanted me to approach it with the sort of buoyancy and elan and the qualities I usually bring to things, I think people would think that was totally inappropriate.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/05/armed-forces-working-with-nhs-to-distribute-vaccine-according-to-priority-13371682/