CARE HOMES WILL BE FIRST IN LINE FOR THE VACCINE
Vulnerable residents to be given ‘early Christmas present’ of jab on December 14
VULNERABLE care home residents will be among the first to receive the life-saving Covid jab before Christmas.
Dispelling earlier doubts about transport and storage, ministers yesterday confirmed that the new vaccine can be distributed to scotland’s care homes f rom December 14.
But the move, described as an ‘early Christmas present’ for the elderly, came as figures showed the number of care home residents dying from Covid has risen to nearly 100 a week.
all of scotland’s 36,000 care home residents are in the top priority group, alongside vaccinators, health and care workers and those over the age of 80. It is now proposed to give all priority groups the jab by spring.
But ministers quietly scrapped a previous pledge to complete the entire vaccination programme by the spring, and now say it will be extended to the rest of the adult population ‘as
as possible’ after priority groups are completed.
The national vaccination programme will begin on T uesday after the UK Government delivers the first batch of 65,600 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab to Scotland.
The first batch provides enough doses to vaccinate 32,800 people – with each person receiving two jabs between 21 and 28 days apart.
It will be distributed to health boards on a population share to allow them to immunise workers and care home residents.
Further batches of the vaccine, the first to be approved, will arrive in the coming weeks, although specific dates are not yet confirmed.
Dr Donald MacAskill, chief executive of Scottish Care, which represents independent care providers, said: ‘We were aware there were particular logistical challenges with transporta - tion but the news this afternoon is excellent and will make a huge difference.
‘We know this vaccine is particularly robust and very effective for older individuals. It will certainly be an early Christmas present for those lucky enough to receive it first.’
Robert Kilgour, executive chairman of Ren - aissance Care, which operates 15 homes in Scotland, said: ‘This is certainly very exciting news – a great early Christmas present for all our amazing hard-working staff, our vulnerable elderly residents and all their many relatives and friends. Hopefully , the end of the dark tunnel of this crisis is in sight.’
Nicola Sturgeon had earlier said it may not be possible for any of the first batch to go to care homes because of logistical problems as it was thought the packs of 997 doses could not be broken down before being transported.
But ministers received confirmation yester - day afternoon that the vaccine can be trans - ported in an unfrozen state for up to 12 hours, and can also be broken down into smaller packs in ‘certain conditions’. This means it can be transported from storage in 23 ultra-low temperature freezers in hospitals around Scotland to individual care homes and other sites.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman told MSPs this means it will be ‘more useable with minimum wastage for care home residents and our older citizens’. She said: ‘In effect we can take the vaccine to them, or close to them, and we will begin that exercise from December 14.’
Figures yesterday showed the total number of deaths from Covid in care homes, reported to the Care Inspectorate, rose from 88 between November 16-22 to 96 in the week of November 23-29, an increase of 9 per cent. This is equivalent to around 14 care home residents dying every day.
Miss Freeman said it is ‘critical’ that care home residents are immunised but was unable to say when this would be completed.
She said: ‘We expect more sup - plies to arrive over December, and as those are confirmed and we are clearer about that, that lets us know how many people we can vaccinate over December, ready to redo these individuals in January.
‘ That has an i mplication on whether or not we can vaccinate all of the residents in all of our care homes. And so I have asked our clinical directors, who will have a connection to JCVI (Joint Com - mittee on Vaccination and Immunisation) how, if we have to, should we prioritise our care homes so that we will get through them all, but we might not necessarily get through them all in the month of December.’
SNP ministers, however, scrapped the target of completing the entire immunisation programme by the spring, announced only two weeks ago. Miss Sturgeon initially said at FMQs that ‘we very much hope’ the target could be met.
But in a statement to MSPs yes - terday afternoon, Miss Freeman said: ‘On the basis that we receive the vaccine supply we expect, when we expect it, we should vac - cinate the first phase by spring of next year. The rest of the adult population will follow as quickly as possible thereafter.’
Next month, information about the vaccine, its safety and local plans will be sent to every home.
Ministers said 160 vaccinators per day are needed to deliver the programme from Tuesday, with an estimated 2,000 required by the end of next month.
But they were unable to confirm a full list of venues for the wider immunisation programme. The locations of 23 ultra-low tempera - tures storage facilities across the country were not revealed because of ‘national security concerns’.
On the security plans for the vaccine, a Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The Scottish Government is working closely with health boards and P olice Scotland to ensure security of vaccines in transit and on site.
‘The UK Government Centre for Protection of National Infrastruc - ture (part of MI5) is also looking at local security provisions, with a dedicated lead for Scotland.’
The UK Government expects to receive up to four million doses of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca jab before the end of this year if it is approved by regulators.
This would result in 328,000 doses of the vaccine heading to Scotland by the end of the month. UK
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: ‘The UK Government is working extremely closely with the devolved administrations on ensuring the safe and speedy rollout of the Pfizer vaccine across the whole of the UK.
‘Including the Pfizer vaccine, the UK Government has so far secured access to a total of 357million vac - cine doses for all the nations of the UK through agreements with seven separate vaccine developers.
‘The UK Government will meet the cost of these vaccines which will be distributed to all nations of the UK, Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories.’