10 new mass vaccination centres to open up across UK

Ten new large-scale centres, including a rugby ground, racecourse, food court and a cadral, will open up next week across Britain to join seven alrey delivering vaccines to immunise against COVID-19, UK's National Health Service (NHS) said on Sunday.

It comes as a furr 324,233 vaccine doses were ministered across UK to take total above 3.5 million, a milestone hailed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a "fantastic national effort".

state-funded health service leing UK's "biggest" vaccination programme in history also confirmed more than 1 million people d 80 or over have been invited to book a coronavirus jab at a Vaccination Centre.

re are w 1,000 general practice (GP) led services and more than 250 hospitals offering coronavirus vaccinations, with dozens of new high street pharmacies stores also jabbing people by end of next week.

" NHS vaccination programme, biggest in NHS history, is off to a strong start with more than three million people receiving life-saving jab, including more than a third of those d 80 or over," said Ruth May, chief nursing officer for England.

We are ding more sites as more vaccine supplies become available, so that people can choose a convenient option, with around a million invites sent over last week for those d 80 and over. Having worked alongside clinicians at my local hospital I kw how tough it is for our staff treating an increasing number of seriously ill people with COVID-19 – so I cant stress eugh how important it is that everyone plays ir part by practicing social distancing and following national guidance, she said.

UK government is also urging public to "play ir part" in supporting drive by helping people attend ir appointments.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock asked people to commit to three pledges to help out, join up and stay informed during ongoing efforts to vaccinate, run clinical trials and share accurate health vice.

NHS said that vaccination centres offer a convenient option for those who do t want to wait to be contacted by GPs or hospitals.

People d 80 or over living up to a 45-minute drive from 17 centers are being written to with option of choosing to arrange a vaccination re or at a pharmacy site through new national booking service.

Alternatively, people can choose to wait to be contacted in due course by ir local GP-led vaccination service.

NHS said it sent out 641,000 invitations last week and ar 380,000 are landing on doormats this weekend. Ar half a million will go out in coming week.

Appointments are staggered to allow for social distancing and people who do book one are being asked t to turn up early to avoid creating queues.

10 new centers mean re will be at least one in each health region and help to ensure that people are within reach of a jabbing service, including more rural parts of country.

Care home residents who are unable to travel to vaccine centers, hospitals, or GP-led sites, are being jabbed at ir homes.

NHS highlighted how it me history when Maggie Keenan became first person in world to be protected against coronavirus outside of a clinical trial when she received Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at Coventry Hospital on December 8, 2020.

NHS was also first health system to deliver new Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine when Brian Pinker, 82, was jabbed earlier this month.

priority groups for receiving vaccine were set by government following vice from Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). government has committed itself to a target of vaccinating all vulnerable groups in top JCVI categories by February 15. 

(IM CREDITS:PTI)