The UK Armed Forces on Monday launched the largest peacetime resilience operation in its history by setting up 80 new COVID-19 vaccination centers across Scotland, the country's Ministry of Defense said
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2021) The UK Armed Forces on Monday launched the largest peacetime resilience operation in its history by setting up 80 new COVID-19 vaccination centers across Scotland, the country's Ministry of Defense said.
Almost 100 servicemen are expected to support the Scottish healthcare workers and the government in preparing and operationalizing vaccination centers for the mass immunization campaign in the next 28 days.
"They will use their logistical, organisational and clinical expertise to establish the vaccine centres, before handing them over to NHS Scotland to deliver their vaccination programme," the defense ministry said in a statement.
According to Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, the military will help the Scottish authorities administer the initial 900,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the month.
"For us all, vaccines are the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm very pleased that the expertise of the British Armed Forces is helping the Scottish Government get vaccines into arms as quickly as possible. The UK Government is supplying and paying for vaccines for the whole of the UK - it is now vital that these doses are administered as soon as possible," Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said, as quoted in the statement.
So far, about 3.5 million people across the UK have received the Pfizer/BioNTech or AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines, according to UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock. On Sunday, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that the government was aiming to vaccinate the kingdom's entire adult population by September.
