Covid-19 vaccine: Jab to be rolled out in Birmingham

Margaret Keenan, who turns 91 next week, was the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine outside of clinical trials

Birmingham could start delivering the Covid-19 vaccination from Saturday, an MP says.

The city is in tier three and has seen more deaths than any other local authority area in England, but Labour MP Liam Byrne said it was still waiting to receive the vaccine.

He has asked the government why the it was not included in the first wave of vaccinations which began on Tuesday.

The BBC has approached the government for a response.

NHS England said University Hospitals Birmingham would be among 10 new sites to start vaccinations in the coming days, in addition to the 50 named on 6 December.

Mr Byrne, MP for Hodge Hill, said vaccinations could begin at the weekend, if they arrive on Friday.

If not, the city would not be vaccinating until Monday at the earliest, he said.

A 90-year-old grandmother was the first person in the world to be given the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Tuesday at University Hospital, Coventry, as part of a mass vaccination programme.

The UK became the first country in the world to start using it after regulators approved its use last week.

The first wave of vaccinations in England began on Tuesday

The jab is now being rolled out in nearby Walsall and Stoke-on-Trent, which are also tier-three areas.

Since the pandemic began, Birmingham has seen a total of 1,423 deaths (as of Thursday) and the latest figures from Public Health England show there were 2,570 new cases in the city in the seven days up to and including 6 December.

Mr Byrne said he and Birmingham City Council Leader Ian Ward had jointly written to the government asking why the city's hospital trust had yet to receive the vaccine.

In a tweet on Thursday, Andy Street, Conservative mayor for the West Midlands, said that he expected vaccinations to begin "in the coming days".

"Disappointing and surprising that the city's NHS trust wasn't part of the initial roll-out given its size and record, but I've been in contact with Matt Hancock to put that right," he added.

The first to get the injections at hubs across the UK are the over-80s and some health and care staff, with up to 800,000 doses being dispensed in the coming weeks.

Up to four million more doses of the vaccine are expected by the end of the month.

Birmingham Hodge Hill MP Liam Byrne is Labour's candidate for the West Midlands mayoral contest