Britain will open seven large-scale vaccination centers on Monday, helping to accelerate the spread of COVID-19 images that the government wants to deliver to vulnerable people by mid-February.
The country, the first to approve vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca, currently vaccinates about 200,000 people a day, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Sunday.
It needs to raise that level to 2 million a week to meet its target of vaccinating those in care homes, people over 70, clinically vulnerable people with conditions former and health and social care staff by 15 February.
Britain is battling an acute illness but is pushing its hopes of a speedy vaccination to allow life to begin to return to normal by spring.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock will outline his COVID-19 vaccination plan – the largest vaccination program in British history – later Monday.
“The UK vaccine delivery plan will be a stepping stone to getting us out of the pandemic, but we must all continue to play our part by staying at home, following the rules and holding hands, face, place at the very beginning of our minds when we are out and about, “he said in a statement.
More than 81,000 people in Britain have died within 28 days of being tested positive for COVID-19, the fifth highest official death toll in the world, and more than 3 million people have been positive.
Centers include Nightingale field hospital in London, a football stadium in Bristol in the west, Epsom racecourse in the southeast and a tennis club in Manchester in the north, the government.
Hundreds of additional surgeries and hospitals and some pharmacies will start delivering shots this week, bringing the total number of sites to 1,200, the government said.