Covid vaccination roll-out gathers pace across Argyll

Preparations are under way to expand a Covid-19 vaccination programme across Argyll.

NHS Highland announced this week that priority groups in Argyll and Bute – including care home residents and staff, health and social care staff working directly with Covid or suspected Covid patients, GPs and vaccinators – have already received a vaccination in line with national guidance.

Joanna Macdonald, chief officer of Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership thanked staff, including GPs and their teams, for their ‘hard work and commitment in ensuring that we are moving forward with the vaccinations as quickly as we can’.

She continued: ‘We are currently working our way through the priority groups as per the national guidance and I am delighted to say our vaccination teams have already visited all care homes in Argyll and Bute, which is really good news. We are now also starting to vaccinate people aged 80 and over and your GP will be in touch when it’s your turn to be seen.’

In Mid Argyll, Lochgilphead Medical Centre provided an update on Tuesday January 19 via social media, posting: ‘From the end of January supplies of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine will be arriving regularly. The vaccine will be administered in accordance with national guidance on the priority groups, starting with the over 80s, and will be delivered through the GP surgery. Patients will be contacted directly and given an appointment time to attend.

‘As vaccine supply continues, the priority groups will be called up in order. Please try to avoid calling the surgery for more information, we will contact you direct.

‘To date [we have] been receiving the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine in relatively small amounts and this has been given to some care home patients and front line workers.’

The statement continued that the medical centre ‘has no control over the number of vaccines allocated to our area or when these will arrive.

‘Throughout Scotland the distribution of vaccines has been based on population density, which explains the perceived delay of supplies to our area.’

Joanna Macdonald concluded: ‘I would remind the public of the importance of continuing to follow national guidance on social distancing, self-isolation and mixing indoors and that they should stay at home and only leave the house for essential purposes.’

‘The distribution of vaccines is based on population density...’