London, Dec 14 (PTI) General Practitioners (GPs) and doctors' surgeries across the UK on Monday began receiving the first deliveries of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 and will be ready to administer the doses from this week, adding to the hospital hubs already vaccinating the high-risk groups of elderly and frontline workers.

According to the National Health Service (NHS), practices in more than 100 parts of the country are taking delivery of the vaccine, with some kicking off their vaccination drive on Monday itself and the majority starting on Tuesday.

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Groups of health providers are also setting up local vaccination centres in villages, towns and cities in order to cover different parts of the country.

"GPs, nurses, pharmacists and other primary care staff are eager to play their part in protecting people against coronavirus," said Dr Nikki Kanani, practising GP and NHS Director of Primary Care.

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"This is the greatest vaccination programme ever undertaken by the NHS and, to help vaccinate people safely we will be working with local communities to deliver it in convenient and familiar settings. As a GP I am proud to be part of this huge national effort to protect our patients against the virus and I would urge the public to come forward when they are called up for the vaccine,” she said.

Nurses, paramedics, pharmacists and other NHS staff will work alongside GPs to vaccinate those aged 80 and over, as well as care home workers and residents, identified as priority groups defined by the government's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) for the first phase of the life-saving vaccine.

Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: "GPs and our teams are about to embark on an enormous challenge, delivering the COVID-19 vaccination programme in the community whilst also delivering the expanded flu vaccine programme and the usual care and services our patients rely on us for.

"There are also logistical challenges but General Practice has an excellent track record of delivering mass vaccination programmes, and we want to use this experience to help protect people from COVID-19 and start getting life back to normal again.

"We won't be vaccinating everyone all at once – it will be a relatively small number at first – but as long as there is supply, GPs and our teams at selected sites will start vaccinating people this week, starting with our most vulnerable patients.

"Patients will be contacted and invited for vaccination – we would urge them not to contact their practice enquiring about vaccination, we will contact them."

Residents of care homes in Scotland and England will also receive their first vaccines after distributors finalise new, stringent processes to ensure safe delivery of the PfizerBioNTech vaccine, the NHS said.

"Like hospital staff, who launched the world-leading campaign last week, practice teams are working rapidly to redesign their sites and put in place safe processes to meet the tough logistical challenges of offering the vaccination. The NHS will contact people in the priority groups when it is their turn to receive the vaccine,” NHS England said.

The latest phase of the vaccine rollout is being coordinated by GP-led primary care networks with more practices and community pharmacies in other parts of England joining on a phased basis during December and in the coming months.

The drive comes as ministers expressed deep concerns about a spike in coronavirus cases in and around London, with the UK capital set to be moved to the highest level of Tier 3 from the current Tier 2.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has called for schools to be shut early for Christmas as he urged ministers to act "with open eyes" as measures are tightened to avoid damaging the capital's economy.

Overall on Sunday, confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 19 per cent across the UK compared with the previous seven days, with 18,447 reported, and a further 144 deaths took the country's death toll from the deadly virus to 64,170.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)