Boris Johnson appoints Nadhim Zahawi as health minister for Covid vaccine

PM Boris Johnson has appointed Nadhim Zahawi as minister to oversee the Covid vaccine roll-out.

DOWNING Street has confirmed the Stratford-on-Avon MP will report to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, and will remain a junior business minister.

He will be responsible for the deployment of the coronavirus vaccine, with the temporary post set to last until at least next summer.

Mr Zahawi tweeted: “Delighted to have been asked by Boris Johnson to become the minister for Covid vaccine deployment. A big responsibility and a big operational challenge but absolutely committed to making sure we can roll out vaccines quickly-saving lives and livelihoods and helping us build back better.”

Labour recently called on the government to implement a minister to be responsible for the vaccine roll-out, provide transparency and accountability and handle PPE procurement and Test and Trace.

The government has reserved 100 million doses of the Oxford vaccine and secured around 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

This is expected to be enough for about a third of the UK population.

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