England’s street pharmacies will start distributing Covid vaccines as the number of virus deaths in the UK exceeds 100,000.
Boots and Superdrug will be among the six stores across England that will be able to run the jabs from Thursday, while the government aims to achieve its goal of vaccinating everyone in the four most vulnerable groups by the middle of next month. .
Andrews Pharmacy in Macclesfield, Cullimore Chemist in Edgware, North London, Woodside Pharmacy in Telford and Appleton Village pharmacy in Widnes will be in the first group to distribute the injections, alongside Boots in Halifax and Superdrug in Guildford.
Boris Johnson also told lawmakers that the distribution “will be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, as soon as we can”, but said delivery of doses remains the main barrier.
The Scottish government published its vaccine delivery plan on Wednesday night, including details of how many doses it expects to receive each week by the end of May, sparking a fight with London, which refused to publish its figures.
The six pharmacies were chosen because they can deliver large volumes of the vaccine and allow for social distance, and Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it was “fantastic” that jabs were available on the streets.
“Pharmacies are at the center of local communities and will make a big difference in our implantation program, providing even more convenient local places for those who are eligible to receive their vaccine,” he said.
By the end of the month, more than 200 community chemists will be able to give vaccines, according to NHS England.
Pharmacies join 200 hospitals, around 800 GP clinics and seven mass vaccination centers where vaccines are already being delivered.
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer urged ministers to go further and use England’s 11,500 pharmacies to deliver vaccines 24 hours a day by the end of next month.
The expansion of the vaccination service in England comes at a time when the daily death toll in the UK reached a new record on Wednesday, with 1,564 deaths recorded in 28 days after a positive test.
The latest figures mean that the terrible milestone of more than 100,000 deaths involving the coronavirus has now been passed in the UK, according to official data.