Old people DON’T want a 24-7 vaccine rollout, management consultants claim

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Management consultants paid for by the Government to speed up the vaccine roll-out are pushing back on plans to introduce a 24-hour Covid jab service.

Companies helping to achieve Britain’s ambitious vaccination programme have told ministers there is little demand for a round-the-clock vaccination programme. 

They claim getting pensioners to vaccination centres in the middle of the night is not ‘physically feasible’ and the constraint on the current programme is not the lack of hours in the day but making sure there is enough skilled staff.

More than 15 companies are being paid millions of pounds by the Government to help get the country vaccinated quickly and effectively. 

Many of the firms were responsible for implementing UK’s Test & Trace tracking system, reports claim. 

Yesterday, NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said a trial for 24-hour Covid vaccines will begin within the next 10 days. 

And Boris Johnson earlier promised the NHS would launch an all-night jab programme ‘as soon as we can’.

But chief executive of the Management Consultancies Association Tamzen Isacsson said firms have told ministers that a round-the-clock programme for the Oxford and Pfizer jabs ‘wouldn’t be the answer to the problem at the moment’.

She told The Daily Telegraph: ‘Getting elderly people to somewhere at 2am is just not physically feasible, practically.’

She said there are enough vaccines available and enough time to administer them – but the ‘constraint’ is ‘making sure that the right skilled staff who have been trained with this vaccine are in the right place to administer it’.

A further 671 people died after testing positive for Covid-19 yesterday in the highest Sunday increase ever recorded.

But the number of new cases has dropped by nearly a third since last week, in a clear sign that lockdown is working.

Official statistics released yesterday afternoon showed 38,598 new cases of coronavirus have been recorded across Britain, down on the 54,940 recorded on the same day last week. 

Pressure is mounting on the Government to dish out coronavirus vaccines 24/7, with Labour saying No10 ‘must deliver for the British people’ because the public ‘have sacrificed so much’.  

But ministers earlier claimed there was ‘no clamour’ for appointments beyond 8pm. 

Health Secretary Matt Hancock last week said the NHS will would do ‘whatever it takes’ – but he played down the prospect of a round-the clock operation, saying people will prefer to get jabs in the day.

And in the Commons, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said round-the-clock vaccines will not happen in the first phase, where the four most vulnerable groups are being targeted, because staff would end up ‘standing around waiting’. 

‘If we were to go to a 24-hour regime, it would be much harder to target the vaccine at those four cohorts,’ he said. 

‘Obviously, when we have limited vaccine volume, we do not want staff standing around waiting for people in centres that are open 24 hours.’

NHS boss Sir Simon was yesterday asked if he would like to see jabs given ‘all day, all night’.

He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: ‘Absolutely, we will do that at the point that we have enough supply that it makes sense.  

‘We will start testing 24/7 in some hospitals over the course of the next 10 days.

‘But we are at the moment vaccinating at about 140 jabs a minute and yesterday (Saturday), a quarter of a million people got their vaccinations on the NHS.

‘I’m pretty confident by the time we get to the end of today, Sunday night, we will have perhaps done 1.5 million vaccinations this past week, that’s up from around a million the week before.’

‘We are vaccinating four times faster than people are catching coronavirus.’

He also insisted that no vaccines were being thrown away by doctors, despite reports. 

Sir Simon said: ‘The guidance from the chief medical officer and NHS medical director is crystal clear, that every last drop of vaccine should be used.’ 

Sir Simon said the NHS is facing the most ‘unique’ situation in its history.

Asked if the nation’s health service has ever been in a more precarious situation, he said: ‘No. This is a unique event in our 72-year history, it’s become glib to talk about this as the worst pandemic in a century, but that is clearly correct.

‘We have got three-quarters more Covid inpatients now then we had in the April peak.

‘Although we are seeing some promising signs of the steadying of the infection rates, the fact is they are still far too high and, among some age groups, still rising.’

He added: ‘It is not going to be the case that on Valentine’s Day, with one bound, we are free.

‘Equally, I don’t think we will have to wait until the autumn, I think somewhere between those two.

‘Subject, of course, to this uncertainty around new variants of coronavirus and it will be very important we don’t see those taking off in a way that undermines the effectiveness of the vaccines we have.’ 

He also said the army is helping the NHS battle the virus: ‘There around 200 combat medical technicians who are going to be supporting. We have currently around 50,000 NHS staff off for coronavirus related reasons.

‘We’ve also got 50,000 more staff working in the health service than we had a year ago.’

Former minister Steve Baker – a leader of the lockdown-sceptic CRG group of Tory MPs – earlier told MailOnline the Government must ‘look carefully’ at extending the hours.

‘The sooner the vulnerable are vaccinated, the sooner we can end these destructive cycles of lockdowns and restrictions,’ he said. 

‘So the Government should look closely at all the practical problems of 24/7 operation and press forward with it if it would help meet necessary goals.’ 

Tory MP Henry Smith said the vaccine rollout seemed to be going well so far, adding: ‘There is no excuse why it shouldn’t be 24/7. This is a national emergency and every hour lost is damaging to our economy and our future and our finances and our health. 

‘We cannot lose a moment. I steer away from making international comparisons… but the fact that Israel has been able to vaccinate most of the population – it could be done faster.’  

On Sunday, it was revealed that more than half of over-80s have had Covid jabs  – despite Dominic Raab’s hints that all adults may not be vaccinated before September. 

The Health Secretary made the announcement on Twitter the morning after saying the UK is ‘nearly on the home strait’ out of the pandemic. 

He said: ‘I’m delighted that over half of all over-80s have been vaccinated. 

‘Each jab brings us one step closer to normal. Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.’  

But Dominic Raab yesterday failed to guarantee that everyone will receive a second dose of a coronavirus vaccine within a 12 week target period as he dampened hopes of all UK adults getting the jab by the end of June. 

The Government has chosen to deliver the two required doses of the vaccines 12 weeks apart in order to get more people vaccinated with the first jab as quickly as possible.  

However, there are concerns that supply issues could hamper efforts to hit that target. 

Mr Raab said this morning the Government ‘should be able to deliver it’ and he is ‘quietly confident’ the UK will get there but he declined to make a firm promise. 

Reports overnight suggested that ministers are now privately aiming to have vaccinated every UK adult by the end of June.

But Mr Raab played down the idea of a much faster vaccine roll-out as he insisted the Government’s target is still September for having offered every adult a first dose. 

The Foreign Secretary also said that ‘hopefully by March’ the Government will be in a position to begin easing lockdown restrictions. 

His comments came as ten new vaccine centres are set to open across England on Monday with more than a million over-80s invited to receive their coronavirus jab.

The Government is increasingly bullish about the speed of Britain’s vaccination drive, with more than 3.5million people having received their first dose as of Saturday.  

Whitehall sources are confident of accelerating the pace of the rollout to a point where four to five million people are receiving their shots each week. 

The Mail on Sunday yesterday revealed French drugs firm Valneva is just ‘days away’ from kick-starting manufacture of its jab on British soil. 

Valneva will soon furnish Britain with 60million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine – the UK’s second largest supply after the Oxford-AstraZeneca injection – but is yet to strike a deal with the EU or its native France.  

In a major boost for the UK’s vaccination drive, the company’s boss said he hopes Valneva’s Covid jab will be approved and ready to be administered into British arms by the summer or early autumn.

Chief executive Thomas Lingelbach said Valneva’s vaccine, which has been produced with financial aid from the UK Government, is about to go into mass production at its plant in Livingston, Scotland. 

Valneva’s jab is administered in two doses 21 days apart – like Pfizer-BioNTech’s – although it does not require ultra-cold storage. 

Early trials are taking place on 150 volunteers at four sites across England. The UK has the option to order up to 130 million further doses between 2022 and 2025, which would bring the cost to nearly €900million (£800million).

The French-headquartered firm’s jab is the second-largest Covid vaccine ordered by Government, after the 100 million dose Oxford-AstraZeneca jab. 

By contrast, the European Commission last week said a period of ‘exploratory talks’ with Valneva had concluded ‘with a view to purchasing its potential vaccine against Covid-19’. The EU is likely to order 30million doses, with the option to buy a further 30million.

However, the UK will be the ‘priority’ for Valneva, its boss said, leaving France, Germany and other countries in the bloc likely to receive their deliveries of the vaccine later. 

Valneva has previously said that its jab, which entered clinical trials in December, would not be available for use in the UK population until the last three months of the year.

However, Mr Lingelbach said conversations were under way with regulators to discuss the possibility of releasing the treatment at some point between July and September.

He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘We are days away from starting the commercial manufacturing… We cannot release it without regulatory approval so we’re in a little bit of a Catch-22 situation and there are certainly scenarios that we are currently discussing with the regulators… But we have already signed up to give priority to the UK and this is something we’re currently working on.’