Pull out all the stops in race to vaccinate

FOOTBALL stadiums are no longer just for sport. West Ham, Chelsea and Tottenham are playing host to mass vaccination centres as London races to catch up with the rest of the country on vaccines.

To meet the Government’s target of getting two-thirds of Londoners fully vaccinated by July 19, the capital needs 100,000 vaccines a day. It is an ambitious goal and one on which we are falling short. On Monday, 51,892 doses were administered in the capital — this must be doubled.

With a young population, London is both less vaccinated and more reliant on supplies of Pfizer and Moderna, after the Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation advised that people under 40 should be offered an alternative to AstraZeneca. The Government must therefore guarantee that the capital not only gets the supply of vaccines it needs, but the right kind. For we know the demand is there — images following a surge vaccination day at Twickenham last month were compared with Glastonbury.

With total Covid cases over the most recent seven days at nearly 6,000 — up 52 per cent on the previous week — getting more jabs in arms is critical. The case rate in Londoners under 60 is six times greater than those over 60. As we report in today’s paper, Sadiq Khan has said he is confident London could deliver the 100,000 jabs a day, which he believes would be a “game-changer”. From requiring all care home staff to be jabbed to addressing vaccine hesitancy and using our sports infrastructure, we must maximise every tool at our disposal in the race to vaccinate our city.