NHS Nightingale is one of seven mass vaccination hubs now up and running in the UK.
The UK’s vaccination rollout is gathering speed, with 2.4 million residents now having received their coronavirus vaccine. Here in London – where, in recent days, it’s been reported that as many as 1 in 30 Londoners might be carrying the virus – a huge effort to vaccinate citizens is underway, and it’s been boosted by the opening of the mass vaccination hub at London’s NHS Nightingale, housed inside the ExCeL Centre. Today, the hospital welcomed its first cohort of Londoners, who were soon vaccinated against coronavirus.
Margatea Wallin is one of our first patients to get the #covidvaccine at the new ExCel vaccination centre.
Margatea comes from #Hackney and said: “I think everyone should get the vaccine, no question.” pic.twitter.com/BbgNkzY2zT
— Barts Health (@NHSBartsHealth) January 11, 2021
The field hospital was partially converted into a vaccination centre last week, whilst retaining half the space for seriously ill Covid patients. By beginning to administer the vaccine today, the vaccination hub aims to help reach the ambitious target set by the NHS and the UK government: nearly 14 million vulnerable people vaccinated by mid-February. Those people are drawn from the top four priority groups (older care home residents and their carers, over-80s and frontline health and social care workers, over-75s, and the over-70s and clinically extremely vulnerable people).
88 year old local resident Rita, visited the Covid-19 vaccination centre today.
Rita was keen to get her #covidvaccine and said: “I got the vaccine because it should help us all.”
❤️❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/ENV05DBlgj
— Barts Health (@NHSBartsHealth) January 11, 2021
From there, the vaccine will be offered to further priority groups in slightly lower risk categories, with Health Secretary Matt Hancock pledging over the weekend that every adult in the UK would be offered the vaccine by the autumn. The rollout is expected to gather pace now that the mass vaccination hubs have opened, so many more Londoners will be leaving NHS Nightingale vaccinated against the virus in the coming weeks and months.