Asda pharmacy colleagues begin providing Covid vaccines in partnership with the NHS

Seventy-eight-year-old Harbans Kaur from Smethwick was one of the first people to receive the Covid-19 vaccination from Ashok Claire, who's part of the trained pharmacy team at our Cape Hill store in Birmingham.

*** FREE FOR EDITORIAL USE *** Asda becomes the first supermarket to provide in-store COVID vaccinations today (Thursday 28th January), after being given the green light by NHS England to operate a vaccination centre from it's Cape Hill store in Birmingham. Qualified Asda pharmacy colleagues will administer the vaccine to priority groups identified by the NHS. The first vaccination was received by Harbans Kaur aged 78 from Smethwick

Ashok and his colleagues are administering 240 jabs per day in a dedicated space cleared at the store to priority groups selected and contacted by the NHS.

The vaccination centre is operating from 8am to 8pm seven days a week.

We're stepping up our support for the NHS vaccination programme by transforming the George section of our Watford superstore – creating a much larger space that has the capacity to deliver 3,500 vaccines a week.

We're currently working to repurpose the space ready for our pharmacy colleagues to start providing vaccines to patients identified by the NHS the week commencing 1st February.

We've also offered all of our 254 in-store pharmacies across the UK, as well as our logistics network, to support the vaccination roll-out.

Asda Superintendent Pharmacist Faisal Tuddy said: "We are incredibly proud to be the first supermarket pharmacy to administer the vaccine and to play our part in helping the NHS roll out its vaccination programme.

"Many of the people who will attend the store today have been shielding at home for months and we hope receiving the vaccine is the first step towards a return to normality for them.

"We are also stepping up our support for the NHS by opening a second in-store vaccination centre next week and have offered all of our 254 in-store pharmacies across the UK, along with our logistics network, to help with the roll out."