Seven mass sites for vaccination against coronavirus were opened in England on Monday while the government dosed millions of people while a new type of disease prevailed across the country.
Sites include football stadiums and a horse racing track, and are located in cities such as Bristol, London, Newcastle and Manchester.
According to the National Health Service (NHS) in England, they have to vaccinate thousands a week with a number of other sites expected to follow.
“I feel very relieved,” said Moira Edwards, 88, after receiving her first vaccination at the Epsom Downs Racecourse, south of London, which is better known for the Derby.
‘I feel it’s the way back. I can not understand that someone does not want it. ‘
The mainly elderly recipients of the jab, some of whom used runners, sticks or were pushed in wheelchairs to get to the center, received stickers “I had my Covid vaccination”.
Hospitals and pharmacies will offer the vaccine later this week, and the government hopes to have doses available for 12 million of England’s 56 million people by mid-February.
A further three million are being targeted in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland by the same date.
Elderly people, care homes and workers, the clinically extremely vulnerable persons and health and social care staff are given priority.
Some 2.4 million people have been vaccinated in the UK since the launch of the Pfizer BioNTech jab on December 8, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said during a visit to Bristol.
That includes 40 percent of those over the age of 80, and nearly a quarter of the residents of nursing homes, he added, calling it a ‘race against time’ as the new variant boom blames it.
Britain has now also approved the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Moderna jabs, and has drawn up logistics experts from the army to help the vaccination.
– ‘Worst weeks’ –
Britain is struggling with its worst outbreak of the disease since it arrived early last year.
The record cases and daily death tolls are attributed to a new, more contagious strain, which has put the NHS under pressure, leading to warnings about critical care shortages.
The state-run NHS is running the risk of being overwhelmed and the country is in its third exclusion until at least mid-February, with predictions that the restrictions could last even longer.
In Northern Ireland, health chiefs said hospitals in the province were under intense pressure, and that two health trusts had to be employed to relieve the pressure due to the increase in cases.
“The next few weeks are going to be the worst weeks of this pandemic in terms of the NHS,” England chief medical officer Chris Whitty told BBC television on Monday.
“What we need to do before the vaccines have had their effect … is that we really need to double down” to observe the closure measures, he added.
Britain said on Saturday it had recorded more than three million cases of coronavirus since the pandemic began last year.
A record 2425 deaths were reported over a 24-hour period on Friday from people who tested positive for the virus, fearing the deaths could remain constant for weeks.
The full death toll now stands at more than 80,000, the highest in Europe.
In Leatherhead, near Epsom, corpses were stored in a temporary mortuary of 1400 because there was no place in local hospitals.
Closing rules include closures in the school, but the government has been criticized for not wanting to go further, with evidence of continued mixing with close contact. The government does not require people outside to wear masks.
Johnson said that while the rules are being revised, compliance with existing guidelines will make a “big, big difference” in lowering infection rates.
He warned against ‘false confidence (and) false complacency’ due to the vaccination of the vaccine, which aims to reach all adults by the end of October.
Britain was at a ‘very dangerous moment’, he said. “This is the moment for maximum vigilance, maximum observation, compliance with the rules.”
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