​

The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, discussed the rollout of the vaccine tonight. Accompanied in the conference by Sir Simon Stevens, the Chief Executive of the NHS England, and Commander Phil Prosser, the Brigadier in charge of speeding up the vaccine distribution process.

​

Key points from the conference:

• Close to 1.5 million people have already received the vaccine in the United Kingdom.
  
  

• Johnson is confident we will reach our target of making the vaccine readily available to everyone in key groups by the 15th of February as the Government is "throwing everything at it". Reaching the target will mean supplying the vaccine to over 15 million total people in the United Kingdom.
  
  

• Included in the key groups are as follows:
  
  - All elderly care home residents and their staff.
  - All those aged above 70.
  - All frontline NHS and care staff.
  - All those clinically and extremely vulnerable.
  
  

• These groups account for 88% of all deaths related to COVID19 so far.
  
  

• The Prime Minister informs us of the aims for the end of this week with locations offering vaccines, stating there will be over 1000 GP run sites, 223 hospital sites, 7 giant vaccination centres, and a 1st wave of community pharmacies.
  
  

• The Army is working hand in hand with the National Health Service to setup a vaccine network, "using battle preparation techniques" to organise it.
  
  

• A full vaccine deployment plan will be published on Monday confirms Boris Johnson.
  
  

• Sir Simon Stevens says there are currently 50% more COVID19 inpatients in hospitals than during the peak of the first wave. He warns the numbers are "very rapidly" increasing with 10,000 more patients in hospitals since Christmas Day.
  
  

• At the moment there are 18,000 people working to vaccinate out of 80,000 who are trained.
  
  

• Lastly, Brigadier Phil Prosser gives us details on the military's role in deploying the vaccine, saying the logistics operation is "unparalleled in its scale and complexity".
  

Today's total number of cases sits at 52,618 and deaths at 1,162 which is close to the peak of 1,166 in April.

​

To read the key points from previous government coronavirus conferences click here

​