Matt Hancock today confirmed that the military would be involved in distributing a coronavirus vaccine.
The Health Secretary told the virtual Tory conference that ‘the plans are in train’ to combine the NHS and the armed forces to make ‘the rollout happen’.
He said people would get the vaccine ‘according to priority’ – but did not clarify what that order would be.
It comes after Government sources yesterday revealed that the jab could be just ‘three months away’ in Britain leaving every adult in the country vaccinated against Covid-19 as soon as Easter.
Mr Hancock told the Tory conference that a vaccine was the ‘great hope’.
Matt Hancock (pictured last month) today confirmed that the military would be involved in distributing a coronavirus vaccine
He said: ‘The Prime Minister said this morning there will be some bumpy months ahead but we are working as hard as we can to get a vaccine as fast as is safely possible.
‘The plans are in train. A combination of the NHS and the armed forces are involved in the logistics of making this happen, making the rollout happen.
‘Because it’s not just about developing the vaccine and then testing the vaccine – which is what’s happening now – it’s then a matter of rolling out the vaccine according to priority, according to clinical need.
‘We have set out the order in which people will get it, we have set that out in draft pending the final clinical data.’
Mr Hancock also told the conference that the NHS Covid-19 app had now been downloaded 15 million times.
‘It’s gone off the shelf like hotcakes, like digital hotcakes,’ he said.
The app was finally launched in September, having originally been promised by Mr Hancock for mid-May.
The plans to have all adult Britons vaccinated by Easter coincides with Boris Johnson’s hint that the Rule of Six could be suspended on Christmas Day to ensure a family of five can have both grandparents round for festive lunch.
The Prime Minister stressed the Government would do ‘everything we can to make sure Christmas for everybody is normal as possible’.