Mehdi Chebil/Polaris

Military airbridge between Belgium and the UK

Dozens of millions of doses of the Covid vaccine produced in Belgium will be flown to the UK by military aircraft. According to the Guardian newspaper the deployment of the British military is needed to avoid supply issues linked to delays in ports resulting from Brexit, the UK’s departure from the EU.

Transition arrangements lapse at New Year’s if no deal is struck.

UK government health and defence ministry sources have confirmed that large amounts of vaccine will be flown to the UK starting 1 January if rail, road and maritime traffic is adversely affected by Brexit. Defence ministry officials and the UK’s vaccine taskforce have already been in contact with each other.

The report illustrates how UK government ministers are preparing for serious disruption of traffic through the Channel ports and at airports as a result of the end of the transition.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is one of the vaccines produced in Belgium.  It needs to get to the UK from a factory in Puurs (Antwerp).

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