The NHS has been asked to be ready to deploy a coronavirus vaccine from the start of December, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has told Sky News.
It was announced on Monday that a COVID-19 vaccine, being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, has been found to be 90% effective in preventing people from getting the virus.
Mr Hancock said: “I’ve asked the NHS – who are supported by the armed services in this, but the NHS are very much leading this effort for deploying the vaccine – I’ve asked them to be ready from the start of December.
“Of course there are many hurdles that still need to be gone over and we haven’t seen the full safety data and obviously that is critical and we won’t deploy a vaccine unless we can be confident in its clinical safety.
“But we also do need to be ready should a vaccine be licenced and get through all those hurdles and ready to roll it out.”
