A Birmingham supermarket will be the first in the country to facilitate instore Covid vaccinations
The first supermarket in the country to facilitate instore Covid vaccinations will be a Birmingham branch ASDA store.
ASDA CEO and president, Rodger Burnley, celebrated the news saying
“We are incredibly proud to provide this service and are keen to do all we can to help the NHS and Government accelerate the rollout of the vaccination programme.”
He added:
“We have an extensive nationwide logistics network that could support the storage and distribution of the vaccine and our highly-trained pharmacy colleagues are experienced in delivery large vaccination programmes, having recently provided nearly 200,000 flu jabs to members of the public.”
ASDA joins the mass vaccination effort
ASDA will transform their George department to create an instore vaccination centre, operating 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.
This new mass vaccination centre will have the capacity to administer 250 injections per day
The announcement comes after this week’s opening of 7 national mass vaccination centres, the ASDA site will be Birmingham’s second mass vaccine site.
ASDA is the first supermarket to be selected by NHS England to conduct vaccinations and other potential stores are being considered to dispense vaccines.
Vaccinations will be offered to key priority groups in the national effort to vaccinate 15 million vulnerable people and key healthcare workers.
ASDA customers are being told not to directly contact stores as the NHS will allocate appointments.
Local leisure centre facilitates mass vaccination
News of a mass vaccination centre also comes after Sandwell Leisure Trust announced its partnership with Sandwell Council and the local NHS trust to support the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
The Tipton Sports Academy and Portway Lifestyle Centre will be the lastest site used by GPs to provide vaccines to memebers of the public whohave been contacted to recive their injections.
Rollout of the vaccine will accelerate over the coming weeks says Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4 this morning he said 2.3 million people across the country have received their vaccination and the NHS was “on track” to the 15 million vaccinated by the mid-February target.
“We have the capacity to get that vaccine out. The challenge is that we need to get the vaccine in.”
“What I know is that the supply will increase over the next few weeks and that means the very rapid rate that we are going at the moment will continue to accelerate over the next couple of week.”
