The Metro Mayor of Liverpool, Steve Rotheram, has written to the Health Secretary asking for the Government to work better with the Liverpool region to rollout vaccines quicker across the area.
The letter urges the Government to use the infrastructure in Liverpool that was put in place for mass testing last year, as a mass vaccination site.
The Government has set up 50 mass vaccinations across the country, with Liverpool’s nearest one being in Manchester, somewhere that Mr Rotheram claims is too far for the city’s elderly and vulnerable residents to travel .
In his letter to Matt Hancock, Steve Rotheram said:
"While it is welcome that an overall vaccination number is being published, a UK figure alone is not enough.
"I would ask that the government start to provide more granular data; broken down by region, local authority, age and priority group.
"This would allow us to get a clearer picture of what was happening locally, measure our progress towards vaccinated target groups and identify areas in need of greater support.
"Doing so would also help us find areas of best practice exist, from which everyone can learn."
The Government has the target to be up to 2 million vaccinations per week in the coming weeks via the use of mass vaccination centres as well as traditional settings such as Doctor’s surgeries and hospitals.
It was announced yesterday that just over 2.3 million people had received the first dose of the vaccine since the programme started.
