Sunderland Conservatives leader backs Shot in the Arm campaign to bring covid vaccines closer to home via pharmacies

The Sunderland Echo and its sister titles across the country launched the Shot in the Arm campaign this week, urging the Government to enlist the UK’s network of 11,000 pharmacies to help roll out the covid vaccine.

This would boost capacity and bring vaccination appointments closer to Wearsiders’ doorsteps.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged to ensure everyone is withing ten miles of a Covid-19 vaccination centre – but the Shot in the Arm campaign calls for this to be slashed to ten minutes with the help of community pharmacies.

Now Sunderland Conseratives leader Councillor Antony Mullen has got behind the campaign.

He said: “We have already developed an effective vaccine in record time and begun to distribute it faster than comparable European countries.

"But the next stage of our rollout must be to increase the pace and scale of distribution so that we can get back to normal as soon as possible.

"Pharmacies could play an important part in ramping up vaccine delivery and I support the campaign to get them on board."

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society, which is also backing the campaign, says using community pharmacies could ensure a further 1.3 million people could be vaccinated across the country each week.

Pharmacists have been administering the flu jab for many years and are trained to give a variety of injections. They have been allowed to help with covid jabs in the community, but only in a limited way.

A total of six vaccination centres are expected to be operating in Sunderland by the end of this week, and door-to-door vaccinations are hoped to begin within days for vulnerable people who are housebound.

A mass vaccination centre has also opened for the North East – located in Newcastle’s Centre for Life.

But pharmacies around the UK are easily accessible to the vast majority of the population, and the introduction of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine makes the job easier for them as it does not have to be kept at very low temperatures to remain effective.

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