Helen Donovan, professional lead for public health at the Royal College of Nursing, added that nursing staff will not only be helping the rollout of the programme, they will also be helping to encourage take up of the vaccine.
“Nursing staff have always been involved with vaccine delivery and probably deliver the majority of vaccines that we already give in the UK, so that will continue,” she said.
“Supporting people and encouraging people to take up the vaccine is as much part of actually giving the injections. All of those things will be really crucial.”
She added: “This gives us the light at the end of the tunnel almost, although we know that it’s going to be a long process.
“I think that ‘marathon not a sprint’ is absolutely right – it’s going to take many months for us to get the vaccine out to the people who need it and other vaccines will come on, so it is going to take time.”
