COVID-19: UK Govt Appoints Nadhim Zahawi As Vaccine Rollout Minister

Nadhim Zahawi has been appointed as a new health minister to oversee rollout of the Covid vaccine in England.

The rollout is expected to begin before Christmas, subject to regulatory approval.

Mr Zahawi, MP for Stratford-on-Avon, will oversee distribution of the vaccine until at least next summer.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he was “delighted”, adding in a tweet there was “an enormous task ahead”.

Under the interim arrangement, Mr Zahawi will serve as a joint minister between the health department and the business department, where he currently works.

His primary focus will be on delivering the vaccine, with most areas of his business portfolio put aside.

It comes as a further 479 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were reported in the UK, bringing the total to 58,030. There were also a further 15,871 positive cases registered in the past 24 hours.

In a tweet , Mr Zahawi welcomed his new post but said the rollout would be a “big responsibility and a big operational challenge”.

He added that he was “absolutely committed to making sure we can roll out vaccines quickly – saving lives and livelihoods and helping us #buildbackbetter”.

Mr Zahawi will look after deployment of the vaccine in England only, but will work with the devolved administrations on their chosen approach. Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be responsible for the vaccine’s distribution in their relevant nations.

Currently, the UK government has placed orders for 100 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, 40 million doses of the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech and five million doses from US firm Moderna.

Rolling out the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine may pose the greatest challenge as it needs to be stored at minus 70C, raising potential difficulties with transport and storage.

Last week, the government asked the regulator to assess the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, marking “a significant first step” in getting the vaccine “approved for deployment”.

It follows a similar referral to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) earlier this month to assess the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which has been shown to stop more than 90% of people developing COVID-19 symptoms in preliminary trials.

On Saturday, the Financial Times reported that regulatory approval for that vaccine could come as early as next week – and suggested rollout would start within hours of authorisation.

Interim data from the trials of the Oxford jab showed an overall efficacy of 70%. The findings from one group of volunteers showed 62% efficacy while another group, who were given a different dose by accident, showed 90% efficacy.

The Department of Health and Social Care said the UK would be one of the first countries in the world to receive the vaccine, if it is authorised, with AstraZeneca set to have as many as four million doses ready for the UK by the end of the year and 40 million by the end of March 2021.

Who is Nadhim Zahawi?

Nadhim Zahawi moved to the UK from Iraq with his family when he was nine years old

In 2000 he co-founded online market research agency YouGov and was its chief executive until he was selected as a Conservative parliamentary candidate in 2010

He was first elected as Conservative MP for Stratford-on-Avon in May 2010

In 2011 he co-authored a book with fellow MP Matt Hancock, now the health secretary, on the human behaviour behind the banking crash – called “Masters of Nothing”

In 2018 he became an education minister in Theresa May’s government.

Under Boris Johnson’s premiership he was appointed as a business minister

He is married and has three children