A number of Premier League clubs are assisting the UK’s National Health Service with the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Crystal Palace and Leeds United are among the clubs who will be allowing the NHS to use their facilities to administer the COVID-19 vaccine. It comes as several sporing venues in the UK are being turned into mass vaccination centres.
Leeds United is set to host a vaccination centre at Centenary Pavilion – a conference centre across the road from its Elland Road stadium.
Meanwhile Crystal Palace has donated its Selhurst Park home ground to the NHS. The stadium will open for vaccinations later in January and will be one of London’s biggest vaccination venues.
“We are proud to be playing our part in helping the NHS deliver the vaccine to as many people as possible as quickly as possible,” Crystal Palace Chairman Steve Parish said.
“Selhurst Park sits at the heart of our community so we were delighted to put our stadium at the disposal of the NHS.
“Nothing could be more important than the rapid roll-out of the vaccine program to allow us all to return to something approaching normality.”
Liverpool and Tottenham have also offered for Anfield and Spurs’ Stadium to be used as vaccination centres.
During the pandemic both Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Anfield have been used as testing centres.
A UK Government spokesperson told the BBC of the government’s thankfulness in response to Tottenham’s offer.
“We are very grateful for all offers of support as we continue to expand our vaccination programme,” they said.
“The NHS has decades of experience in delivering large scale vaccination programmes and has already vaccinated over a million patients with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. It will now begin putting its extensive preparations into action to roll out the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the weeks and months ahead.”
Alongside the Premier League clubs, English Football League Championship side Bristol City’s Ashton Gate will open as a vaccination centre, while fellow Championship side Wycombe Wanderers have also offered up function rooms at its Adams Park stadium.
