Covid: UK can immunise everyone by spring with 24/7 vaccinations, says top GP
The UK can vaccinate its entire population against Covid-19 by spring if the government starts a 24-hour programme using venues like football stadiums, according to the former Royal College of General Practitioners chair.
Dame Clare Gerada said today that the UK “can’t just rely on GP surgeries” to administer the vaccines and that the country needs “a massive operational system” to hit the government’s 2m jabs a week target.
The UK’s medicines regulator yesterday approved the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine, making it the second jab it has deemed to be safe.
The vaccine is set to be rolled out from next Monday, with millions of doses already available.
The vaccine is easier to store, transport and administer than the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine as it does not have to be kept at -70-degree temperature.
Gerarda told the BBC today that the UK should be able to vaccinate the whole country against Covid by spring, thanks to the AstraZeneca vaccine, if unused venues are used to administer the jab.
She said: “For general practitioners of course we’re going to play our part, as we did with the Pfizer one, but we’re limited by staff, we’re limited by practical issues of getting people in – frail, elderly people.
“If we can scale this up, if we can get a mass operational system up and running then I don’t see why we can’t get the whole population immunised by the spring.
“But we can’t just rely on GP surgeries to be calling people in. It’s got to be football stadia, all these large venues we’ve got currently lying dormant.”
Health secretary Matt Hancock told MPs yesterday that the UK could administer 2m jabs a week “if we can get the manufacturing up to that speed”.
AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot has said this is possible.