Government to reveal its plans for delivering coronavirus vaccines

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock will reveal the plan at a Downing Street press conference this afternoon.

He will also visit one of the seven new regional vaccination centres to see first-hand an element of the plan in action.

More than 1,000 vaccination sites have already been established across the UK, helping those who are most at risk from Covid-19 to access vaccines for free.

Mr Hancock said: “Since the historic day the first vaccine was approved, the NHS has made fantastic strides in offering the vaccine to as many at risk people as possible and at record pace.

“We have worked closely with experts across the NHS, local governments and the armed forces to put in place full and thorough preparations for this rollout – this is the biggest vaccination programme in British history.

“From today, the full scale of our plans will be published, so the public can be assured of the time, effort and resources that have gone and will go into ensuring we protect the British people from the scourge of this virus.

“The UK vaccine delivery plan will be the keystone of our exit out of the pandemic, but we all must continue to play our part by staying at home, following the rules and keeping hands, face, space at the forefront of our minds when out and about.”

The NHS will be offering a vaccination to everyone in the top four priority groups by February 15. This includes: all residents in a care home for older adults and their carers; those 80 and over and frontline health and social care workers; those 75 and over; and all those 70 and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals.

Minister for Covid-19 Vaccine Deployment Nadhim Zahawi said: “With around two million people in the UK now having received their first dose of the vaccine, this has truly been a remarkable effort from a variety of organisations spanning a number of sectors.

“Our plan of action will set out our ambitions for the coming weeks and months as we continue to expand our programme at breakneck speed, with strategies to underpin every commitment.

“It’s been phenomenal to see our extensive preparations come to fruition and from tomorrow the public will also be able to see exactly how we will ensure they and their loved ones get the vaccine as quickly as possible.”

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