750 British armed forces personnel will be used in England and Scotland to boost the speed of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
According to a Ministry of Defence news release:
“750 Armed Forces personnel have been made available to support the NHS, the Department of Health and Social Care and the Scottish Government to accelerate the vaccine booster programme. Over 100 personnel are currently supporting the vaccine rollout in Scotland. 600 Armed Forces personnel have been made available to NHS England to administer vaccines, working in small teams across the country.
In addition, around 50 personnel will provide planning support to NHS England. 41 planners will deploy to NHS regions across England and 10 logistics experts will be based at NHS England’s headquarters in London.”
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said:
“We have rapidly mobilised service personnel to work alongside our dedicated health services to accelerate the vaccine booster programme. Our Armed Forces will help to get vaccines into arms as quickly as possible as we continue our efforts to support the UK’s response to the pandemic.”
Since March 2020, the British Armed Forces have supported over 430 tasks as part of Operation Rescript – Defence’s support to the UK’s response to the pandemic.
“Defence are currently supporting ambulance services in Wales and Scotland and the vaccine rollout in Scotland among other tasks including testing. Support is being provided through the Military Aid to the Civil Authorities (MACA) process. Personnel supporting on Operation Rescript tasks have deployed from across the three services – Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force – and are a mixture of regulars and reservists.”
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