Supermarket chain Tesco offers to help with Britain’s vaccine programme

Pfizer-BioNTech concerned change to inoculation plan could backfire after UK said it aimed to immunise 24 million by April

The Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines have been approved for use in the UK. AFP

Supermarket chain Tesco has offered to help administer coronavirus vaccines in Britain as politicians set ambitious targets for the nationwide inoculation campaign.

The retailer said its cold chain transport subsidiary, Best Food Logistics, had offered its network of refrigerated lorries and warehouses for the distribution of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine, which needs to be stored at temperatures between 2°C and 8°C.

Empty hotels and conference centres also offered their venues as makeshift vaccination clinics, newspaper The Telegraph reported.

AstraZeneca said it had the capacity to deliver two million doses of the vaccine to the UK each week.

Hopes are high that 24 million of the most vulnerable UK residents could be immunised by Easter, which will fall on April 4.

The government has yet to respond to the offers of help from the private sector.

But Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Wednesday he was confident the National Health Service could handle the mammoth task despite the surging pressure on hospitals.

Meanwhile, Pfizer-BioNTech raised concern over the change to the delivery schedule of vaccines in the UK.

Both shots will be delivered as one dose followed by another up to 12 weeks later to extend some protection to as many people as possible.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is already in use, was previously delivered as two shots three weeks apart. But the companies that developed it said it was not designed to be delivered 12 weeks apart, and that doing so could adversely affect its efficacy.

“Data from the phase 3 study demonstrated that, although partial protection from the vaccine appears to begin as early as 12 days after the first dose, two doses of the vaccine are required to provide the maximum protection against the disease, a vaccine efficacy of 95 per cent,” the companies said.

“There is no data to demonstrate that protection after the first dose is sustained after 21 days.”

But Prof Peter Finn, who is a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said it was “absurd to suggest the protection from the first dose evaporates after three weeks”.

"There really shouldn't be any concerns that somehow in the meantime they will stop being protected – there is really no plausible likelihood of that happening," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

“On the positive side, it means many more people will receive the vaccine in this short and critical period.

“The overall protection against hospitalisation and severe disease will be maximised and that will protect us all.”