Asda has become the first supermarket to confirm it will be offering the coronavirus vaccine in store at its pharmacies.
The supermarket giant confirmed today that its in store pharmacies will be giving out the vaccine against Covid-19 later this month in a bid to accelerate the roll out of the jab.
This follows new lockdown rules being introduced, and other supermarkets enforcing stricter measures on customers.
When will Asda be giving out the Covid vaccine?
Asda has been selected by the NHS to run in-store vaccine centres. It is the first supermarket to do this. The first store to offer the vaccine will be in Birmingham on the 25th of January.
Asda is looking at transforming a whole department into the vaccine centre to be open 8am to 8pm.
The NHS and Public Health England are assessing other Asda sites that can support the vaccination programme. Asda has reportedly offered all 238 in-store pharmacies and pharmacist staff to the NHS.
The Pfizer, BioNtech and Oxford vaccine will be made available to priority groups. The first vaccine centre will have the capacity to give 250 jabs, 7 days a week.
The NHS has said that priority groups will be offered an appointment for the vaccine. The Asda centres can also be selected for the vaccine, if more convenient.
These new vaccine centres will reduce stress on the NHS and local medical centres. They will also enable more people to have access to the vaccine.
Roger Burnley, CEO and President of Asda said in a statement, “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.”
In addition, Burnley went on to say,“We have an extensive nationwide logistics network that could support the storage and distribution of the vaccine."
He continued to say that "colleagues are experienced in delivering large vaccination programmes, having recently provided nearly 200,000 flu jabs to members of the public.”
Asda has also said they are on hand to provide any support the NHS need “ so that more people can quickly receive the vaccine.”
