Keir Starmer echoes calls to deploy all community pharmacies to coronavirus vaccine effort

Following The Star and its sisters titles’ campaign this week calling on the Government to utilise 11,500 community pharmacies to get the vaccination into people’s arms, Sir Keir echoed the demand ahead of a visit to a vaccination centre in Stevenage today.

Sir Keir said the Government needs to “match the nation’s ambition” with a 24/7 rollout of jabs.

And has called on ministers to deploy more of England’s community pharmacies past the initial 200 to guarantee vaccines can be delivered on every high street.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed in Parliament that the drive to get jabs in arms would move to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as soon as possible.

During Prime Minister’s Questions Mr Johnson said the process of protecting people from coronavirus is already going “exceptionally fast” but “at the moment the limit is on supply” of the vaccine.

“We will be going to 24/7 as soon as we can,” he told MPs, despite Downing Street on Monday saying there was no clamour for such a model.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock will set out further details “in due course”, Mr Johnson said.

But earlier in the day, Mr Hancock questioned whether there would be demand for a round-the-clock vaccination operation.

He said the NHS was “absolutely up for doing that” but “most people want to get vaccinated in the daytime, and also most people who are doing the vaccinations want to give them in the daytime, but there may be circumstances in which that would help”.

Sir Keir has also urged the Government to increase capacity to four million vaccinations a week by the end of February.

The NHS said six pharmacies will begin delivering the coronavirus vaccine from today.

And Mr Hancock said: "Pharmacies sit at the heart of local communities and will make a big difference to our rollout programme by providing even more local, convenient places for those that are eligible to get their jab."

But The Star and its sister titles have called for all of the country’s 11,500 chemists to be given the chance to administer the jab.

Only stores capable of delivering large volumes while allowing for social distancing are initially being selected to give the best geographical spread.

And ministers have insisted that smaller sites will be utilised better in the second phase of the drive.

But Sir Keir said: “The whole country wants this rollout to succeed. We were the first to get the vaccine and if we get this right and pull together, I know we can be the first country to roll it out successfully.

“To do that, the Government needs to match the nation’s ambition with a 24/7 rollout which harnesses all the expertise and dedication our country has to offer.

“Every high street has a pharmacy and I want to see every possible pharmacy deployed to help.

“Across those communities, pharmacists stand ready to play their part too. Let’s use them, and let’s vaccinate Britain.”

It will not be possible to get an appointment at any of the first wave of pharmacies delivering the vaccine without receiving an invitation letter.