Next, please! The high street hubs get started
DOZENS of pensioners received the Covid jab on the high street yesterday as they became the first to be vaccinated at their local pharmacy.
Robert Salt, 82, braved the rain to be first in the queue at Andrews Pharmacy in Macclesfield, Cheshire – one of six sites in england chosen to deliver the Oxford jab.
Up to 200 pharmacies, including those at high street giants Boots and Superdrug, are expected to offer the appointment-only service in the coming weeks as the Government’s vaccination rollout gathers pace.
Mr Salt said it was ‘wonderful’ to have received his first dose, adding: ‘There was a little trepidation but it’s good, everything has gone fine.’
he said he was relieved but will feel better when his wife, who is under 80 and waiting for her appointment, had also had the jab. ‘I’m healthy but you know you’re in the age range where you’re very vulnerable,’ Mr
Salt said. ‘ The situation with the death rates going up the way they have done is pretty frightening.’
Patricia Main, a 75-year-old nursing assistant in a care home, was close to tears as she was vaccinated at a Boots pharmacy in halifax, west Yorkshire. ‘I’m absolutely ecstatic,’ she said. ‘I really could cry, I am that happy about getting it.
‘I advise everyone to get this feeling of security – let’s get it done and get back to normal.’
Pharmacist Andrew hodgson, who has run pharmacies for 30 years and administered the jab to Mr Salt, said yesterday was ‘probably the biggest single day of my career’. he said he knew of families where four generations used his services, adding: ‘I feel close to the people who are getting vaccinated and it is a personal experience for them. The whole team is very excited to be part of the rollout.’
elsewhere, Cullimore Chemist in edgware, north London; Woodside Pharmacy in Telford, Shropshire; Appleton Village Pharmacy in Widnes, Cheshire; and Superdrug in Guildford, Surrey, also began administering the jab.
The pharmacies were chosen because they can deliver large volumes of the vaccine and allow for social distancing.
Peter Cast, 87, from Ashtead, Surrey, who received the vaccine in Guildford, said: ‘A hundred years ago, my mother lost a brother to the flu virus and I have always been conscious of its danger. So I think the step forward that the
‘Absolutely ecstatic’
science and the drug manufacturers have made over the last 12 months is astonishing.’ Christine Zemba, lead pharmacist at the Superdrug branch, urged anyone who had been contacted to arrange a vaccine appointment at a pharmacy to attend. Superdrug said plans were in the pipeline for more vaccination sites at its stores in Manchester, Leeds, Basingstoke and Bristol, operating 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Boots said additional vaccination sites would be opening in Huddersfield and gloucester in the coming weeks, with more stores under consideration. Those who are eligible for a vaccine will be contacted and invited to make an appointment through a new national booking service.