Nationally:
As of today (10 January) the Government had vaccinated 2 million people with a plan to reach 200,000 per day by Friday 15 January. To put in context – on the 7 January, just three days ago it had vaccinated 1.5 million so has vaccinated an extra half a million in the last three days. The Army has been mobilised to assist with and accelerate the process.
Locally:
As you know the Newbury Racecourse site goes live from tomorrow (11 January). It is jointly operated by a number of Primary Care Networks comprising GP surgeries from across this part of West Berkshire.
All the Berkshire MPs took part in a call with Berkshire CCG leads who included James Kent who is responsible for West Berkshire (among other areas).
He told me that:
- The vaccine has been rolled out across Berkshire starting in the East.
- Newbury Racecourse will receivedoses of the Pfizer vaccine at some point next week which will be divided up between the participating GP surgeries who will start to work down their list of people in the priority groups.
- A significant number of the Oxford vaccine is also arriving next week and that will be taken out to the care homes and to housebound patients. You will recall that is easier to store and transport than the Pfizer vaccine.
- James is going to provide me with more information on Monday morning about what is arriving and when.
You will also be aware that all frontline health service staff are in the priority categories for the vaccine. There are many who live in this constituency and work at the Royal Berks. It was confirmed on the call that by tomorrow (Monday) they will have vaccinated 1800 of their staff – approximately a third of all the staff who work there. They feel that they are working well through the frontline staff.