The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I want to say thank you to our brilliant NHS staff who have transformed the Excel Centre to be used as a new large-scale vaccination venue, as well as preparing the NHS Nightingale Hospital to open as a new patient rehabilitation facility in a different part of the centre.
“This will be crucial in freeing up much-needed beds across London’s hospitals, while also accelerating the roll-out of the vaccine.
“The situation in the capital is now critical and I have declared a major incident because the threat this virus poses to our city is at crisis point. We must work together to get the spread of the virus under control and that’s why I am urging Londoners to stay at home, unless it is absolutely necessary, to protect themselves, others and our NHS.”