People in Birmingham received their Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine injection at the Al Abbas Mosque in Birmingham as the renowned an well-respected place of worship began being used as a Covid-19 vaccination centre.
The mosque in Balsall Heath started as it set out targeting the top four priority groups who are now eligible to get their coronavirus vaccine in England, which means that people who work in health and social care, as well as everyone over the age of 70, care home residents and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable can now be contacted for an Covid-19 jab appointment.
Imam Nuru Mohammed said: “I am elated and inspired that the NHS centre had been set up after help from several medical professionals among the community.
“We stepped in with the intention that this will help to inform those people who are not well-informed about the vaccination.”
Following Health Secretary Matt Hancock telling the House that the country is "in the midst of one of the toughest periods of this pandemic," the minister in charge vaccine deployment, Nadim Zahawi, followed up saying: "Each week the NHS is making it easier for people to get a jab closer to home, in places at the heart of their community from the local pharmacy to the local Mosque."
New modelling from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) has suggested that a quicker rollout, delivering up to 600,000 jabs per day, would mean almost all Covid-19 restrictions could be lifted as early as mid-May.
Former Prime Minister Blair said that the ability to use test and trace had "collapsed" due to the new more transmissible variant, sending "cases rocketing again.
"So now the choice is: mass lockdown or mass vaccination."
Across the UK, as many as 4,973,248 first doses have now been given and 464,036 second doses.
