Government can speed up the race for jabs

As much as many people would hate to admit it, there’s no doubt that government has upped its game when it comes to vaccinating the nation.

Many will argue that, after our sluggish start, it could only get better, but that’s not the point.

As of late this week, we had vaccinated over four million people. Our aim is to vaccinate at least 40 million, so we have a long way to go. Nearly a million people have received the J&J jab, while over three million have received the Pfizer vaccine – with 2.8 million of those only receiving the first of their two-dose inoculations.

People over the age of 60, healthcare workers, teachers and police have been allowed to go for jabs. People over the age of 50 are starting and people aged between 35 and 49 will be allowed to register for their jabs from Thursday, in view of receiving them from 1 August.

Happy days? Well, maybe…

We have only vaccinated 10% of our target. The speed of our process, albeit that it has picked up over the past few weeks, pales in comparison to many other countries. There’s already talk that we might need a third Pfizer jab, creating further obstacles.

The heart of the problem is very little vaccinations take place on weekends. Rethink this and assign resources here. It would make a marked difference.

Government, the ball is in your court…