The government should set up vaccination centers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, confirmed Boris Johnson, after days of pressure on ministers to further intensify the program.
Speaking at the House of Commons, the prime minister said the vaccines “would go 24/7 as soon as we can” and said that Secretary of Health Matt Hancock would give more details shortly after the government created a pilot center.
“At the moment, the limit is on supply,” said Johnson. “We have a huge network of 233 hospitals, 1,000 general practice offices, 200 pharmacies and 50 mass vaccination centers and they are going … exceptionally fast.
“I pay tribute to their work, and it is thanks to the work of the NHS and the vaccination task force that we guarantee more doses per capita than virtually any other country in the world, certainly more than any other country in Europe.”
Labor leader Keir Starmer said the centers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, “the sooner the better for our NHS and for our economy”, but he also criticized the Prime Minister for what he described as his prenatal complacency about the spread of the virus.
Quoting Johnson’s words in the questions of the last prime minister before Christmas, Starmer said: “The prime minister told us that we were seeing, in his words, ‘a significant reduction in the virus’. He then told us that there was no need for endless blocks and no need to change the rules on Christmas mixing.
“Since then… 17,000 people have died from Covid, 60,000 people have been admitted to the hospital and there have been over a million new cases. How did the prime minister get it all wrong and why was he so slow? “
Johnson said that the change in strategy was due to the spread of the new variant and said the government acted “within 24 hours after receiving the advice of 18 [December] … We acted to put vast parts of the country into much, much tougher measures ”.
The prime minister said the country was beginning to see a slowdown in infections. “It is very, very important to emphasize that we are in the early days, now we are seeing the beginning of some signs that this is beginning to have an effect in many parts of the country, but by no means everywhere, and even in the first days, ” he said.
Starmer said it is clear that tougher measures are still needed to control the spread and that it is inevitable that the PM will have to act. “The next big decision is obvious. The current restrictions are not strong enough to control the virus and stronger restrictions are needed, “he said, adding that the prime minister” is likely to ask members to vote in favor “.
“The prime minister can tell us when infection rates are much higher than last year, when hospital admissions are much higher than last March, when mortality rates are much higher than last March, for what the hell are the restrictions weaker than last March? ”
Johnson said the measures were “under constant review” and said he “did not rule out” the need for further restrictions, but repeated that the measures were “beginning to show signs of an effect and we must take that into account as well, because no one can doubt severity damage caused by the blockade to people’s mental health, jobs and livelihoods as well ”.
