Prime Minister Boris Johnson has appointed Nadhim Zahawi to lead on the UK deployment of Coronavirus vaccines, it has been announced.
Mr Zahawi, who is the MP for Stratford-on-Avon, has been a Minister of Industry in Johnson’s Government since July 2019. His new role sees him given additional responsibilities for Life Sciences, specifically with responsibility for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the UK.
Zahawi co-founded market research and data analysis firm YouGov in 2000 and was the company’s CEO from 2005 until 2010 when he was then elected as an MP.
In a tweet on Saturday morning, Mr Zahwi said;
“Delighted to have been asked by @BorisJohnson to become the minister for Covid vaccine deployment.A big responsibility&a big operational challenge but absolutely committed to making sure we can roll out vaccines quickly-saving lives and livelihoods and helping us #buildbackbetter
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he was ‘delighted’ that Mr Zahawi is ‘joining the DHSC team’.
Mr Zahawi’s appointment follows calls from the Labour Party for a Vaccines’ Minister to be appointed.
Previous weeks have seen promising developments on the vaccine front, with news that multiple vaccines could be approved for use in the near future.
As it stands, the UK Government has around 145 million doses of Coronavirus vaccines on order from different manufacturers.
