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Asda Named First Supermarket To Offer Covid Vaccine

Asda Named First Supermarket To Offer Covid Vaccine

The store will have the ability to administer 250 jabs a day

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers

Asda is set to become the first supermarket in the country to administer the Covid vaccine.

NHS England has chosen the chain to set up a vaccination centre from an in-store pharmacy in its Birmingham branch.

It has been given the green light to administer the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

Speaking about the decision, Asda president Roger Burnley said the company was proud to have been picked to help deliver the vaccine.

He said: "We are incredibly proud to provide this service and are keen to do all we can to help the NHS and Government accelerate the rollout of the vaccination programme.

"We have an extensive nationwide logistics network that could support the storage and distribution of the vaccine and our highly-trained pharmacy colleagues are experienced in delivering large vaccination programmes, having recently provided nearly 200,000 flu jabs to members of the public.

Asda Birmingham will be the first supermarket to offer the Covid vaccine.
PA

"We are on hand to provide the NHS with any practical support required so that more people can quickly receive the vaccine."

According to the supermarket giant, it will be transforming its George section at the store into its new vaccination centre.

It will be open from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week, and will have the ability to offer 250 jabs each day.

Those in the priority list will be given an appointment through the NHS and people are told not to contact the store directly about booking.

This comes after a nurse spoke out about colleagues having to throw away supplies of the vaccine because people aren't keeping the appointments their GPs have made for them.

Nurses have been throwing vaccines away because people are not turning up to their appointments.
PA

Mass injection centres have opened across the country in a bid to tackle the coronavirus pandemic with hopes that a jab can be given every 45 seconds.

But speaking to the MailOnline, an anonymous nurse working at one of the hospitals in West London said: "Loads of people are not keeping the appointments their GPs have made for them.

"The trouble is the vaccine has to be given or it has to be thrown away.

"On Thursday night we had something like 45 people who were booked for jabs but didn't turn up, and didn't let us or their GP know in advance.

"Had we known they weren't coming, someone else could have been slotted in in their place.

"We were left hanging around, and then when they didn't show up, we were faced with the choice of throwing the vaccine away or trying to get it into someone's arm."

She went on: "I rang some friends and said 'How quickly can you drop everything and get here?' Other staff were doing the same. Some people we rang were able to come in at short notice and they had the vaccine, but a lot of it had to be thrown away because we can't keep it beyond a certain time."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: covid, Science, Birmingham, vaccine, Coronavirus, Asda, Health, Covid-19