- The UK has now vaccinated more people than any other country in Europe and we were the first country in the world to approve both the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine.
- Over the last 7 days, we have delivered more than double the amount of vaccination doses than any other European country with the exception of Denmark, who have achieved only 50% the rate of the UK.
- We have carried out over 2.8 million vaccinations across the UK
This is the largest vaccination programme in British history and the Government have just released their Vaccination Delivery Plan which outlines how we will vaccinate tens of millions of people by the Spring. The delivery plan document can be downloaded below. This plan will save thousands of lives and provides a road map back to normal life.
This plan sets out how the government will expand and accelerate the rollout with:
- 206 active hospital sites
- 50 large vaccination centres
- 1,200 local vaccination sites
This means that by the end of the month everyone in England will be within 10 miles of a site.
This week, John Turner, CEO of the Lincolnshire CCG said the following about the roll out locally:
“The covid vaccination process in Lincolnshire has got off to a great start. We were amongst the first in the country to start vaccinating on 8th December, we were amongst the first to start vaccinating through our GP led primary care network model, with eight centres already in operation last week. We were delighted that once again Lincolnshire was amongst the first in the country to be offering the new AstraZeneca vaccination, from our latest hospital hub at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston last week. Lincolnshire NHS is delighted to announce that by the end of this week, five more local vaccination centres will go live.”
In order to receive the coronavirus vaccine, you must be registered with a GP surgery. To register with a GP if you do not currently have one you can do so through this link: registering with a GP
The order in which people will be offered the vaccine is based on advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
JCVI advises that the first priorities for the COVID-19 vaccination programme should be the prevention of mortality and the maintenance of the health and social care systems. As the risk of mortality from COVID-19 increases with age, prioritisation is primarily based on age.
The order of priority is set out as follows:
- residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
- all those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers
- all those 75 years of age and over
- all those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
- all those 65 years of age and over
- all individuals aged 16 year to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality
- all those 60 years of age and over
- all those 55 years of age and over
- all those 50 years of age and over
To read more information on the recommendations of the JCVI please visit this link here.
It is important to reiterate that those most at risk from the complications of COVID-19 are being offered the vaccine first. When more vaccine becomes available, the vaccines will be offered to other people at risk as soon as possible.
Due to the logistics of delivery and characteristics of the vaccines, the immunisation service needs to be delivered at scale. The current model is through groups of practices working together through primary care networks, with one designated vaccination site, usually a GP practice. As a result, it may be that not all GP practices are designated locations for vaccinations at the moment - patients from throughout the network will be contacted and invited to attend the designated vaccination site. In due course, as vaccines become more widely available, it is possible that more than one site could be possible within each grouping.
Vaccination Centres - in the constituency & surrounding area
- St Mary's Medical Centre, Stamford
- Meres Leisure Centre, Grantham
- Cliff Villages Medical Practice, Lincoln
- Louth Hospital
- Lincoln County Hospital
- Peterborough Hospital
You are not able to pay for a COVID-19 vaccine privately or at a pharmacy, it is only available through the NHS to eligible groups and it is free.
You can read more much information on the COVID-19 vaccine and the process for receiving it through the NHS web link here.