Downing Street pledges to bring more community pharmacies to vaccine delivery programme

By Geraldine Scott
Published 11th Jan 2021, 13:19 BST
Updated 11th Jan 2021, 13:46 BST
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Downing Street has promised to roll out the coronavirus vaccine delivery programme to more community pharmacies as it was revealed jabs could be given 24 hours a day if supplies allowed.

Nadhim Zahawi, the minister in charge of vaccine deployment, said that most people currently had “about a 45-minute drive” or less to a vaccination centre, but his aim was that no-one in the UK was “more than a 10-mile radius”.

And he told Times Radio that he wanted to reach the point where people could simply walk into their community pharmacy or local GP to receive a vaccine.

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The Yorkshire Post and sister titles today called for the Government to better utilise the country’s 11,000 pharmacies - 1,055 of which are in Yorkshire - to deliver the vaccine.

Rita Passey receives an injection of a Covid-19 vaccine at the NHS vaccine centre that has been set up at the Millennium Point centre in Birmingham. The centre is one of the seven mass vaccination centres now opened to the general public as the government continues to ramp up the vaccination programme against Covid-19. Photo OARita Passey receives an injection of a Covid-19 vaccine at the NHS vaccine centre that has been set up at the Millennium Point centre in Birmingham. The centre is one of the seven mass vaccination centres now opened to the general public as the government continues to ramp up the vaccination programme against Covid-19. Photo OA
Rita Passey receives an injection of a Covid-19 vaccine at the NHS vaccine centre that has been set up at the Millennium Point centre in Birmingham. The centre is one of the seven mass vaccination centres now opened to the general public as the government continues to ramp up the vaccination programme against Covid-19. Photo OA

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told a Westminster briefing this afternoon that they would be looking to bring more than the initial 200 pharmacies on board.

He said: “I think we've said previously we will use more community pharmacies, but as I’ve said we will continue to ramp up the vaccination program, which means using more GPs, more pharmacies, more mass vaccinations centres, as we move through the programme.”

And Mr Zahawi said the drive could even move to 24 hours a day if necessary.

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