'No problems' with Covid-19 vaccine supply chain, Williamson tells LBC

24 February 2021, 09:13

No need for concern over lower daily vaccination numbers, Williamson tells LBC

There are “no problems” with the Covid vaccine supply chain, Gavin Williamson has told LBC, just one day after Matt Hancock said vaccine supply would mean a “quieter” week for jabs.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said it was no cause for concern that vaccine numbers have been below 200,000 per day for the last four days, down from around 400,000 daily jabs last week.

“There are no problems in terms of flow of vaccines,” he explained when pressed on the issue by LBC’s Nick Ferrari.

“I can understand that people will raise concerns, but there isn’t concerns that they should have,” Mr Williamson continued.

“The fact that we have this brilliant procurement exercise, in terms of being able to guarantee supply of vaccines, there will always be some days where it dips lower.

“You point out that it has been four days, but I have every confidence that it will be rebounding back very shortly.”

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The comments come just 24 hours after Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Nick Ferrari it was “all about the supply” of vaccines and this this week would be “quieter” in terms of inoculation numbers.

However, he reassured listeners that the numbers would bounce back in March with a number of "bumper weeks".

Asked if lower production numbers had impacted the UK's jab figures, Mr Hancock said: "It's about the supply schedules, yes, and this is difficult stuff to make."

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But on Tuesday, Pfizer responded to Mr Hancock's comments by insisting to The Sun and the MailOnline that there were "no UK supply challenges" and deliveries were arriving as planned from Belgium.

The pharmaceutical giant added that there had been no changes to its delivery schedule and it was working to the timetable agreed with the UK Government.

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Mr Williamson echoed this, confirming repeatedly that there is “no problem with the supply chain”.

“We have got one of the most advanced vaccination systems anywhere in the world, of any major country,” he said.

“Matt and that whole team, and it has been a big national and collective effort, have been doing wonderful work and they are going to continue to deliver that wonderful work.

“We will be hitting incredibly high numbers. The prime minister has already made it clear that we are going to be reaching all the adult population in record speed.”

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