Coronavirus Vaccine To Start Being Rolled Out On The Isle Of Wight Next Week

BREAKING: The coronavirus vaccine will start to be rolled out on the Isle of Wight next week, Isle of Wight Radio has been told.

Council leader, Dave Stewart, says the roll out is scheduled to start next week on the Island.

The over 80s, care home residents and staff and some frontline NHS workers are being prioritised.

The fight against COVID-19 has taken a historic leap forward after the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was given to someone outside a clinical trial for the first time today (Tuesday).

Grandmother-of-four Margaret Keenan, 90, who lives in Coventry, has become the first person in the world to receive the jab as part of a vaccination programme.

Simon Bryant, director of public health for the Island, said the ‘brilliant’ vaccine programme is ‘hugely logistically challenged’ and the Island will receive its doses from the University Hospital Portsmouth NHS Trust, the nearest hospital hub to the Island.

The go-ahead to split the packs of 975 vaccines still needs to be given by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

They can then be distributed to the medical settings across the rest of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. It is thought the approval could come any day now.

Until then, the Isle of Wight will use vaccine centres to receive the doses, on an invitation-only basis.

Clinical chair of the NHS Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group, Dr Michelle Legg, who, along with other health bodies on the Island, is running the roll out on the Island, said the first 975 doses will be received at the start of next week, on either Monday, December 14 or the following day.

Dr Legg, who is also a GP at the Tower House Surgery in Ryde, said the first doses will be stored in the Carisbrooke surgery and be distributed in the West and Central areas of the Island.

A second batch would be received later the same week, with a third arriving aweek later, starting Monday, December 21,

Speaking at a meeting of the Isle of Wight Council’s policy and scrutiny for health and social care last night (Monday), Dr Legg said the situation changes almost hourly but those being given the vaccination first has been decided by NHS England and is dependent on the nature of the vaccine.

The first Covid-19 vaccine, the Pfizer/Biontech, needs to be stored at -70°C and can only be transferred a few times, compared to the second vaccine, called the Oxford vaccine, which can be stored, used and distributed much more easily between 2°C and 8°C. This vaccine is expected to be approved soon.

Dr Legg said:

“It was going to be the care home group of vulnerable people [who received the vaccine first]. Now, however because of the nature of the vaccine, how it needs to be stored and how it can be only transferred a few times, the cohort which NHS England has designated to be vaccinated first in the community is the over 80s who are not the housebound.

“They will be invited to vaccination, a couple of weeks before Christmas and then there are several categories that will be vaccinated next.”

Dr Legg said when the Oxford vaccine is approved by the MHRA, it is thought that will be the one to vaccinate people in care homes as it can be done ‘easily and quickly’.

Darren Cattell, deputy chief executive of the Isle of Wight NHS Trust, said the trust does have facilities to store the Pfizer vaccines, as and when they do arrive, but some details are yet to be finalised.

He said:

“We are all working well and incredibly hard together to navigate our way through this but, as Dr Legg said, things are changing almost on an hourly basis.”