Mass vaccination centres across England will be able to give four Covid jabs every minute at superhubs as rapid acceleration of NHS drive kicks off
Mass vaccination centres across the country will be able to inoculate up to four people every minute as a rapid acceleration of the NHS’s programme to protect Britain from Covid-19 kicks off.
The Mail on Sunday was yesterday granted exclusive access to a centre at Epsom racecourse in Surrey, ahead of it opening at 8am tomorrow.
It is one of seven major hubs being launched this week as part of Boris Johnson’s drive to offer jabs to the 15 million most vulnerable people in the country by February 15.
Staff at the Epsom hub aim eventually to vaccinate an astonishing 3,000 people each day – equivalent to four jabs per minute. Housed inside the famous racecourse’s vast grandstand, staff will administer vaccines for 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
Staff at the Epsom hub, pictured, aim eventually to vaccinate 3,000 people each day- four jabs a minute
Patients will be ushered into six separate lanes that feed each of the six vaccination stations. There they will be asked a series of questions to ensure they are eligible for the jab and can receive it safely. They will sit down for the injection itself, which takes seconds.
Those receiving the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine can leave straight after their jab. It will take just eight minutes from entering the building through one door to leaving by another. Anyone receiving the Pfizer jab will be asked to wait for 15 minutes in an observation area.
The other major hubs opening this week are the ExCel Centre in East London, the Etihad Tennis Centre in Manchester, Ashton Gate Stadium in Bristol, the Life Science Centre in Newcastle, Robertson House conference centre in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, and the Millennium Point venue in Birmingham.
The first of 130,000 letters were delivered this weekend to people aged 80 or over who live between 30 and 45 minutes’ drive from one of the sites, inviting them to book a vaccination slot.
Another 500,000 letters will arrive later this week. People will either be invited to attend at a particular time, or asked to book a slot online or by phone through the new national booking system.
Leeds United, managed by Marcelo Bielsa, has handed its Centenary Pavilion, opposite the Elland Road stadium, to NHS England
About 120 NHS workers and volunteers will work at the site in Epsom, home of the Derby. Yesterday, dozens of volunteers turned up to receive their final instructions. As they did, cooler bags full of the Oxford vaccine arrived – to the relief of staff. They have been working on the set-up for a fortnight, juggling the task with their normal day-to-day roles.
Helen Cook, director of operations for the Epsom site, said: ‘Even though we are working seven days and we are doing additional hours on top of all our day jobs, my team is really excited to be part of something that is one of the first in the world. Much of this has been done on goodwill. It’s blooming hard – but fantastic.’
She said her team was committed to vaccinating ‘as many people as quickly as we can. As supplies of the vaccine continue to arrive, we have the staff to deliver as much as possible to people’.
This newspaper understands that at least another eight major venues are expected to open as mass vaccination centres in coming weeks.
They include Blackburn Cathedral, where thousands of people are expected to be inoculated in its Gothic crypt from January 18. ‘I am over the moon,’ said the Dean of Blackburn, Peter Howell-Jones. ‘It is a joy to see the cathedral at the heart of community life.’
Meanwhile, Premier League team Leeds United has handed over its Centenary Pavilion, opposite the Elland Road stadium, to NHS England. The site, which is just off the M1, is set to become one of the largest hubs in the North.
Other major sporting venues expected to host vaccination centres include the Totally Wicked Stadium of the St Helens rugby league team and the John Smith’s Stadium in Huddersfield. In the West Midlands, the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley and the Telford International Centre are also expected to offer jabs.
Mr Johnson has promised that the vaccination hubs will join 1,000 GP-led centres, 223 hospitals and 200 pharmacies in administering at least 200,000 jabs a day by Friday.