Asda to be first supermarket to provide in-store Covid-19 vaccinations

Trained pharmacy staff in-store will administer vaccine jabs

Asda will become the first supermarket in the United Kingdom to offer Covid-19 vaccinations from January 25th. The supermarket was selected by the NHS to administer vaccines from a location in Birmingham, where pharmacy staff will administer the vaccine in accordance with NHS guidelines on priority groups. It's understood that the vaccines will be available over a 12-hour period from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week. Capacity is expected to be up to 250 vaccinations per day. Asda president Roger Burnley 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. "We are on hand to provide the NHS with any practical support required so that more people can quickly receive the vaccine.” The announcement comes as efforts intensify to increase Covid-19 vaccinations across the United Kingdom, where - despite a slight decrease in the rise of cases - more than 45,000 new cases were found on January 12th. As the pandemic reaches close to a year in the UK, a new report has revealed the devastating toll that it has taken on NHS staff. According to the report, almost 50 percent of staff working in ICU displayed symptoms of PTSD, depression or anxiety. Nearly one in five nurses working in intensive care units reported "thoughts of self-harm or suicide".