Hancock says NHS ready for new vaccine roll-out

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said that the NHS is ready to start providing the new coronavirus vaccine ‘as fast as safely possible’.

Hancock said in interviews on the morning of 10 November that the vaccine could be available by Christmas, but he expected mass roll-out ‘in the first part of next year’.

Making the announcement, he said that vaccination clinics would be open seven-days-a-week, and that the government was giving GPs an extra £150 million.

Early results from the world's first effective coronavirus vaccine, developed by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech, showed that it could prevent more than 90 per cent of people from getting coronavirus. The companies now plan to apply for emergency approval to use the vaccine by the end of November - and a limited number of people may get the vaccine this year.

The vaccine is one of 11 vaccines that are currently in the final stages of testing.

The UK has already ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine - enough to vaccinate up to 20 million people as each person will need two doses for it to work effectively. Older care home residents and care home staff are at the top of a list from government scientific advisers of who would get immunised first, followed by health workers.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Hancock said: "We still appeal this morning for people's patience, firstly to follow existing rules, because this is still a deadly disease and this is not over yet. Even once we start to roll it out, we still need to look after ourselves, look after our community by following the rules and being careful to stop the spread of transmission. The NHS is ready, we're prepared, I've put in the extra £150 million today, the GPs are ready, we're working with the pharmacists, the hospitals are going to play a very important role.”