‘Jab is here but now is not time to drop guard’

DERBYSHIRE health chiefs say residents need to continue to follow Covid measures to avoid a third wave of the virus in January, as the first few vaccines were given out in the county.

The first Covid vaccine patients in Derbyshire rolled up their sleeves at Royal

Derby Hospital yesterday, for the approved Pfizer and Biontech jabs, and vaccination hubs will soon be setup at GP practices and local authority-owned buildings.

The most at-risk patients are being vaccinated first, along with healthcare workers. NHS staff who are more at risk themselves due to their own medical conditions will be prioritised.

Another phase of the rollout in the county, coordinated by Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust, will be local vaccination services.

Roving teams are thought to be ruled out for the Pfizer vaccine due to the difficulties in transporting it - it must be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius.

These roving crews are thought to be a key part of the eventual roll-out of different vaccines which do not require hyper cold storage - such as the forthcoming Oxford and Astrazeneca product.

GP practices will be working together across the county to nominate sites from which they will deliver vaccines to their respective registered patients, focusing on the most at risk first.

In total, through GP practices working together, 1,000 vaccination centres will be set up across England, with patients invited to come to have the vaccine.

The third strand of the rollout across Derbyshire will be large-scale vaccination centres such as sports and conference centres.

Derby Arena on Pride Park will be one of these massvaccination hubs. Tracy Allen, chief executive of DCHS said in a trust meeting last week: “We are in Tier 3 and we have seen a very significant increase in NHS pressure over the last six weeks.

“The good news is that position has seemed to begin to turn around. Rates across all of Derbyshire are beginning to decrease and as of yesterday we have got rates below the English average across Derby and Derbyshire. The same thing is beginning to be apparent in terms of hospital admissions, that track two or three weeks behind the peak of infections.

“The position is stabilising and while we have still got very significant pressure we do seem to have reached and got over the second peak.

“Whilst the vaccine offers us huge hope going forward we must maintain compliance with the national restrictions and local vigilance and ‘hands, face, space’ or we could be back in trouble.”