Batches of the newly approved coronavirus vaccine from Oxford University and AstraZeneca have started arriving at hospitals ahead of the jab’s rollout on Monday.
Some 530,000 doses of the vaccine will be available across the UK from Monday, with vulnerable groups already identified as the priority for immunisation.
One of the first hospitals to take delivery of a batch on Saturday was the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, part of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Dr George Findlay, chief medical officer and deputy chief executive at the trust, said the vaccination programme gave NHS staff “more confidence” coming into work.
As it can be kept at normal fridge temperature, he said this vaccine was “much easier” to administer when compared with the jab from Pfizer and BioNTech, which needs cold storage of around minus 70C.
Rollout of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab began almost a month ago, with more than a million people having already received their first coronavirus jab.
