Thank you very much to the team at Loomer Road Surgery for inviting me to come and see their vaccination clinic earlier today. They were injecting local over-80s with the Pfizer vaccine. I spoke with a number of those receiving jabs who were all full of praise for the staff and how easy the process had been.
The surgery also received a delivery of the easier-to-transport Oxford vaccines today and will be vaccinating care home residents in the area with these over the next week.
It is estimated that one life will be saved for every 20 people vaccinated in a care home - quite amazing when you think about it in those terms.
I also took part in a conference call this afternoon with other Staffordshire MPs and the local NHS leads to discuss the county-wide rollout. I was very reassured by what I heard and am confident in their ability to hit the mid-February target set by the Prime Minister for vaccinating everyone in the top 4 most at-risk groups.
Locally, we are in a good position and thanks to the hard work of our councils, NHS providers and local businesses we have the buildings and staff ready to mobilise the vaccine at a rapid pace. We have ample delivery capacity and look forward to more supplies being available from the manufacturers shortly.
There was further good news today in that the Moderna vaccine has now been approved for use in the UK, and we have upped our order from 7 million doses of this to 17 million.
For any over 80s who have not yet heard from their GP, I would like to reassure you that you will be contacted in the near future. I would like to remind all priority groups not to contact the NHS to seek a vaccine, the NHS will contact you.
