Health chief ’s assurance on vaccine as supply fluctuates
‘Enough for all first and second doses’ despite fall in vaccinations over a week
A North Yorkshire health chief has made an assurance that there will be enough vaccine to meet the deadline of every adult receiving their first jab.
Amanda Bloor, NHS North Yorkshire CCG Accountable Officer, told a meeting of the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum yesterday that there would be enough vaccine supply to meet national targets.
Her comments came after it was revealed that in the week up to April 4 the number of people to get a jab in Scarborough was 1,071, down from more than 5,500 the week before.
Mrs Bloor said: “We did have lower supplies of vaccine in April than we have had in previous months and that was anticipated and we did know to expect that.
“We have been assured that there is enough vaccine supply to meet the second deadline which is everyone over the age of 18 receiving a vaccination by the end of July.
“We also know that we are expecting sufficient vaccine supply for everyone to have a second dose.”
Scarborough borough’s coronavirus infection rate has continued to fall. Its seven-day coronavirus infection rate per 100,000 people has fallen to 21, a drop of three from Monday and down from its peak of 50 last week.
In the week ending April 4 Scarborough had the eighth highest rate in England but its rate has now dropped back below the national average.
The number of patients in Scarborough Hospital with
Covid-19 has also fallen to four from last week’s figure of 12.
This week vaccinations have been opened up to the next cohort, which is people over the age of 45, and the first Moderna vaccine was given at the Askham Bar site in York.
Mrs Bloor added that the vaccine delivery across areas
of the county would continue to fluctuate.
She said: “Since we started the vaccine program back in December, we have seen peaks and troughs in terms of vaccine supply and that has been dependent on both progress within the cohorts and actually the supply coming through to our region and then how we allocate that across the patch.
“And we would expect that because we need to make sure we can respond and we can move vaccine to where it is required to make sure that we progress at the same pace across all the cohorts.”
Scarborough was once l again North Yorkshire’s biggest offender when it came to fines handed out for illegal indoor gatherings.
North Yorkshire Police said that it has handed 48 fines for illegal indoor gatherings in the week up to April 11 with 39 of them coming on the coast.
Chief Inspector Charlotte Bloxham said no Fixed Penalty Notices had been issued since the further easing of restrictions on Monday.
Chief Inspector Bloxham said that it was important that people stuck to the rules in order to ensure that the road out of lockdown was not blocked.