Devon set to hit its February vaccine target

HEALTH chiefs are confident that the top four priorities groups in Devon will have received their first Covid-19 vaccination by the midFebruary target.

All over 80s will have been offered an appointment by the end of this week at the latest, while 95.4 per cent of care homes in Devon had been vaccinated by last Sunday.

Devon County Council’s Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday afternoon also heard that uptake of the vaccine had been ‘very high’ and that the county was getting its fair share of supply. Darryn Allcorn, NHS Devon CCG Chief Nurse, told the meeting that the system focus is on ensuring that all those in the top four groups (over 70s, care home residents, health and care staff ) are offered a vaccine by the middle of February, and that Devon is on target to hit that goal.

He added: “Across Devon as a whole, all over 80s will be offered an appointment by the end of this week, and then we are still on target with the trajectory and supply for all over 70s to be offered an appointment by Feb 14.

“Our roaming teams are going out into the rural communities and making sure we start the over 70s and over 80s who are housebound.

“All over 80s will definitely be this week invited to an appointment and uptake has been very high.”

Sally Slade, Head of Adult Social Care, added: “We have vaccinated 95.4% of care homes in Devon by January 24.

“There were 12 homes we couldn’t do because they had significant outbreaks and we will follow them up shortly when we can.”

He said take up had been strong.