By V-Day – Health Secretary dubs vaccine rollout in a nod to triumphs in World War II
Around 800,000 doses of the vaccine are expected to be in place for the start of the immunisation program on Tuesday, a day that Health Secretary Matt Hancock has reportedly dubbed as “V-Day,” a nod to triumphs in World War II.
Vaccinations will be administered starting Tuesday at around 50 hospital hubs in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will also begin their vaccination rollouts the same day.
Professor Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, said:
“Despite the huge complexities, hospitals will kickstart the first phase of the largest scale vaccination campaign in our country’s history from Tuesday”.
Now that the first tranche of the vaccine has arrived in the UK from Pfizer’s manufacturing plant in Belgium, checks are being conducted by a specialist medical logistics company to ensure there was no damage in transit.
Louise Coughlan, joint chief pharmacist at Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, said:
“To know that they are here, and we are amongst the first in the country to actually receive the vaccine and therefore the first in the world, is just amazing”.
“I’m so proud” she added after the trust, which runs Croydon University Hospital, took delivery of the vaccine.
This could take up to a day.
Each box containing the vaccines, which includes five packs of 975 doses, will need to be opened and unpacked manually at specially licensed sites.
After that, the vaccines will then be made available to hospitals and GP’s for administration from tomorrow.
