News comment: The start of the vaccine roll-out is cheering - but here are three areas the government must address

When we sent a reporter to speak to people who were being vaccinated in Emsworth this week, their responses were simple, heartfelt and in some cases enough to bring you to tears: ‘I hope it won’t be too many more months before I can start to live my life more freely again’; ‘I can’t wait to start enjoying concerts once again and watching Pompey’; ‘I really hope to be able to see my children and grandchildren.’

Many elderly people have spoken in praise of the measures being taken to ensure they can receive their inoculations safely - a very important factor when it is the elderly who are (quite rightly) at the forefront of this wave of vaccinations, and we commend the NHS for its work in this area.

There are many reasons for optimism, such as the news that all care home staff and residents in Portsmouth have been – or will soon be – vaccinated.

But while the number of new infections appears to be falling, there remain many dark days ahead before Britain can lift the lockdown and return to some semblance of normality.

That is why The News and its sister titles are pressing for clarity from ministers on three crucial elements of vaccine policy.

We do so in a spirit of goodwill and confidence that the vaccines team is willing to take on board constructive advice so as many people as possible can receive their jab.

We face three real crunch issues, as the Prime Minister warned in Parliament that it will be hard to reach a target of vaccinating 15 million of our country’s most vulnerable by February 15 because of the issues of supply.

First there is a real concern over the manufacture and supply of the vaccines.

Pfizer has said it is reducing deliveries for the next three to four weeks while it makes improvements to its factory in Belgium, while AstraZeneca expects to scale up to two million doses per week before or by mid-February.

There are fears these inconsistencies will affect the speed of the roll-out of the vaccine.

We should see the opening of the mass vaccination centre at St James’s Hospital in Milton by the end of the month. We welcome any extra capacity to vaccination in and around Portsmouth, but we need to know that there will be enough doses to administer.

And while we do not disagree with mass centres, we also believe that there is a more local solution to be deployed as well – the second issue is concern the distance between the most vulnerable, who urgently need the jab, and the vaccination centres themselves.

Our petition to ensure that every one of the 11,000 community pharmacies - who stand ready and willing to play their part - last night hit more than 80,000 signatures. We look on course to achieve 100,000 signatures within the next day. If you haven’t signed please do so. It is essential that no-one is more than 10 minutes away from a vaccination centre.

Thirdly we want to make sure that information is available to everyone so they know what they must do next - and know where to turn if they have questions.