Viewpoint: Playing catch-up

Andrew EdePalma06/04/2021 13:19

WHEN Michael O’Leary said last week that Europe will “catch up” and enable restrictions-free travel by June, he perhaps underestimated how much catching-up needs to be done, regardless of an anticipated avalanche of Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

In England, every available site and means have seemingly been pressed into action.

During an Easter Sunday chat with my sister in England, I mentioned having seen the image of a church being used.

“Oh, that was probably Westminster Abbey.” “Not any old church then,“ I replied. High street chemists are administering vaccines, and they are to now be one point of delivery for free rapid flow tests.

Some have criticised this as being a waste of money, with the potential for false positives. Perhaps, but it is nevertheless an indication of where England is at.

The Balearic government is doing its best.

There have only been so many doses, reliant as the government is on the EU and Madrid.

We all know how slow the process has been, but we are also aware of how much quicker it could be.

It has been reported that Mallorca’s hoteliers offered to provide forty million euros to purchase vaccines and to operate a genuinely rapid vaccination programme through the private health sector.

The offer came to nothing. This week, the government can hail the arrival of just short of 50,000 doses - a “record” number - and it will be opening a fourth vaccination site in Mallorca. No mobile services, no pharmacies, no churches; they wouldn’t be needed.