Matt Hancock faced embarrassment today when a GP surgery he visited to mark the start of a new coronavirus vaccine roll-out revealed it had not yet received any.
Mr Hancock said the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was now being supplied to GP practices across the country as he visited the Bloomsbury Surgery in central London.
But GP Ammara Hughes, a partner at the surgery, told Sky News that its first delivery of AstraZeneca s vaccine had been pushed back 24 hours to Thursday.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is easier to distribute than the temperature-sensitive Pfizer/BioNTech jab which was the first to be approved.
play-icon
Video report by ITV News Health Editor Emily Morgan
A visit by the health secretary to a GP surgery which was to be amongst the first to deliver the new Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine did not go according to plan when the delivery was delayed by a day.
Matt Hancock was visiting the Bloomsbury Surgery in central London to promote the initiative and celebrate the vaccine s further rollout, but had to watch the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine be administered instead.
The delivery delay exposed problems with the rollout of coronavirus vaccines, with the government having set an ambitious target of inoculating around 13 million people by mid-February.
The GP surgery visited by the health secretary to mark the expanded rollout of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine has not yet received any of it.
Matt Hancock was at Bloomsbury Surgery in Camden, north London on Thursday, as the government s plans to offer a
COVID-19 jab to the most vulnerable by the middle of next month stepped up a gear. Image: Dr Ammara Hughes says she informed the health secretary of the delayed delivery
But GP Ammara Hughes said the first delivery of the jab to the surgery has been delayed by 24 hours.
She said: We were expecting our first AstraZeneca 400 today, but we ve had a pushback for 24 hours so we re now getting that delivery tomorrow.
Matt Hancock arrives at GP surgery to promote vaccine rollout – but no doses had been delivered
Bloomsbury Surgery in London had been expecting first batch of Oxford vaccine on Thursday morning
7 January 2021 • 12:18pm
Matt Hancock talks to doctors at the Bloomsbury Surgery, in central London
Credit: Sky News
Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, faced questions about the supply of the Oxford vaccine after he visited a doctors surgery to promote the national rollout only to arrive to find that doctors had not received a delivery.
Mr Hancock was attending a photocall on Thursday morning as GPs began administering the vaccine for the first time, but the London surgery he visited had not received the Oxford product.
Matt Hancock said the “rate-limiting” factor in efforts to get people vaccinated is supply from the manufacturers.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is easier to distribute than the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, which was the first to be approved.
Mr Hancock said the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is now being supplied to GP practices across the country, as he visited the Bloomsbury Surgery in central London.
It was confirmed on Thursday evening that the surgery he visited took delivery of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in the afternoon.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is now being supplied to GP practices across the country (Luciana Guerra/PA)