Frontline NHS staff to receive coronavirus vaccine ‘within weeks’
Hospitals are preparing to roll out vaccination programmes in early December.
Hospitals are getting ready to vaccinate staff working on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic, with hopes the jab will be ready ‘within weeks.’
An internal email sent to staff at an NHS Trust said preparations have already begun for a mass roll-out of the vaccine across the health service, the Mail on Sunday reports.
Glen Burley, chief executive of George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust in Warwickshire, wrote: ‘Our Trust, alongside NHS organisations nationally, has been told to be prepared to start a Covid-19 staff vaccine programme in early December.
‘The latest intelligence states a coronavirus vaccine should be available this year with NHS staff prioritised prior to Christmas.’
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Giving more detail about the vaccine, Mr Burley said it would be given in two doses, 28 days apart, and only those who have been received a flu jab this year would qualify.
The MoS also reports another NHS Trust chief executive, Diane Wake, has told staff she hopes they will get the vaccine in December.
She told a recent board meeting of the Dudley Group NHS Trust: ‘I’m hoping for a Covid-19 vaccine to be available to healthcare providers some time in December. It has not been confirmed yet but I’m hoping to be able to offer a Covid-19 vaccine to our staff.’
David Eltringham, managing director at George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust, also said they were making preparations to deploy the vaccine ‘from the beginning of December’, although a definite date for delivery has not yet been confirmed.
It’s thought the most likely vaccine that will be used across the NHS is the one being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca.
This is currently undergoing the third and final stage of clinical trials and has previously shown to have a ‘robust immune response’ and no serious side-effects.
The Government plans to administer the jab to healthcare workers first and then vulnerable groups including the over 80s. Around 100 million doses have been bought in anticipation of it being given approval.
It’s believe that the UK may bypass the EU approval process if the vaccine is demonstrated to be safe before the end of the post-Brexit transition period on December 31.
New laws have been pushed through that would allow British regulators to fast track production, without having to wait for the European Medicines Agency.
A senior Government source told the Mail on Sunday: ‘We have made sure that if a vaccine is proven safe and effective we won’t be held back from deploying it by the need for approval from Brussels.’
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