Boris Johnson to hold Downing Street press conference tonight on UK’s Covid vaccine roll-out
BORIS Johnson will hold a Downing Street press conference later today as he unveils a new Army-led distribution plan for the UK’s Covid vaccines.
The roll-out, drawn up by top military battlefield planners, will see a dramatic hike in Brits receiving the jab in the coming weeks.
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MoD top brass have been ordered to come up with plans for even distribution of the jab for all those that need it within the PM’s target of vaccinating the most vulnerable by mid-February.
Military personnel will be used across the country to help distribute the jabs to help meet the PM’s ambitious target to vaccinate 13 million Brits by mid-February.
Government insiders insisted that the deployment was military planners rather than troops at this stage.
Boris will be flanked by a senior military figure involved in the vital plans tonight, as well as NHS England chief Sir Simon Stevens.
A senior government source said: “The Prime Minister is approaching the vaccination roll-out as a military operation and that’s what you’ll see at tomorrow’s press conference.”
Last week Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the military have “plans for up to 250 teams of mobile, medically trained personnel who could go out and administer the vaccine around the country.”
And he vowed that could deliver “over 100-thousand a day if that is requested by the NHS…and we’re planning to even grow that if possible.”
It came after furious MPs and medics demanded Britain stop dithering and vaccinate round the clock to hit the three million jabs a week.
The UK was the first in the world to authorise a vaccine and 17,500 people have this week joined The Sun’s Jabs Army crusade — but the nation has fallen behind Israel and Bahrain in rolling out the injections.
Despairing docs have been unable to act after their promised doses were repeatedly cancelled in some areas.
And pharmacies say their offer to help has been “ignored”.
Former minister Dr Liam Fox is among ex-GPs who have volunteered to help but been hindered by red tape.
And Public Health England admitted it is not even delivering vaccines to hospitals on Sundays.
Lib Dem health chief Munira Wilson told the Commons yesterday: “We are in a race against time to save lives, save jobs and restore our freedoms.
“Which is why we need a 24/7 programme bringing vaccinations to every high street in the country.”
Yesterday’s daily death toll hit 1,041 with 62,322 more cases — taking the totals to 77,346 and 2,836,801.
Deaths are likely to rise further as people who caught the virus over the festive season fail to recover.
Yesterday, the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies said its 11,000 branches could inoculate millions but are not being used.
So far, only those able to vaccinate 1,000 people a week have been enlisted.
Prof Martin Marshall, of the Royal College of GPs, added: “We need to be delivering upwards of two million vaccinations a week. This is a challenging but necessary target.
“Last-minute changes to delivery schedules, as some GPs are reporting, only create confusion among patients and a lot of hard work for practices that need to swiftly adapt their plans, and must be minimised.”
Vulnerable Brits will be able to get the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab from nearly 800 GPs sites from today.
So far it has only been delivered at hospitals. Another 300,000 doses are arriving tomorrow, taking the total sent out this week to 830,000.
It comes as seven huge vaccination centres are due to open next week in London, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Surrey and Hertfordshire.
Drive-through vaccination centres will also be made available in the car parks of some Morrisons supermarkets from Monday.
Meanwhile, GPs will be told to prioritise Covid vaccinations over other treatments.
The PM has set a target of vaccinating up to 13 million of the most vulnerable Brits by the middle of February in a bid to ease the draconian lockdown restrictions.
It came as a tough March-style lockdown was voted through Parliament yesterday.
Meanwhile, retired medics volunteering to help have been hit by paperwork.
Dr Fox fumed: “Why have I been required to complete courses on conflict resolution, equality, diversity and human rights, moving and handling loads and preventing radicalisation in order to give a simple jab?”
TV’s Dr Rosemary Leonard, who works as a GP, said vaccine orders have been repeatedly cancelled.
She tweeted: “My group of practices was initially told we would get our first delivery on December 28. Then January 4. Then January 11.
“Now we are ‘Sixth wave’ and it will be the 13th, 14th or 15th January. We are raring to go, but have no vaccines. Why?”
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The NHS needs to reach two million people a week to reach the PM’s goal, but only 300,000 are currently being given out at the moment.
So far, more than 1.3 million people have been vaccinated across the UK, including around a quarter of all over 80s.
A source said it would take some days before the NHS was delivering jabs in “big numbers”.
A Government spokesman said: “This is the largest vaccination programme in NHS history with complex logistical challenges.
“It is being accelerated every day and vaccinations will be taking place at over 1,000 sites by the end of this week.”