Nottingham residents could receive a vaccine against coronavirus as early as December 9, a health boss has said.
It means that some residents in Nottingham could be vaccinated against the virus just a week after the national lockdown ends.
Nottingham city’s latest figures, in the week leading up to November 19, show the rate of infection per 100,000 people was at 225 – below the national average of 228.9.
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This is a decrease of almost 50 percent in the week leading up to October 27.
Just over a month ago the rate per 100,000 people in Nottingham city region was at 412.4, with the national average at 224.9.
Kit Sandeman, local democracy reporter for the Nottingham Post, tweeted: “Vaccinations will start on December 9 in Nottingham and Notts if vaccine(s) approved, health boss says.”
News of a coronavirus vaccine being distributed across Nottinghamshire comes following the announcement earlier this week that the vaccination developed by the University of Oxford is 70 percent efficient.
There are now three vaccinations that are awaiting approval by the UK’s regulatory body, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA).
Alongside the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine are alternatives developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
Speaking in a public council meeting today (Tuesday, November 24), Sarah Carter, executive incident director at Nottingham and Nottinghamshire CCG, said the process to recruit volunteers and staff is well underway.
She said: “We’ve been working to prepare to deliver what will be, without doubt, the most unprecedented scale of vaccination programme that we’ve experienced.
“We’ve got approximately 1.3/1.4 million vaccinations to deliver, over what will be quite a concertina timeline across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
“There is some really clear classification and cohorting that the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation has asked us to focus on.
“The cohorting we’re looking to work to, in list of priority are: older adults in residential care homes and care home workers; moving to those who are over 80 years of age and health and social care workers; then all those who are 75 years of age and older; then all those 70 years and over; all those 65 years of age and older; then moving to higher risk adults under 65 years of age and moderate risk adults under 65 years of age; then it goes down in age cohorts up to 18.
“It includes two vaccine supply hubs, one in the city and one in the north of the couty, and a consumables hub, so the vaccine supply hub is where the vaccines are stored.”
She added: “We’re looking at two mass vaccination sites, one in the city and one in the north of the county, a number of satellite vaccination sites.
“There will be a roaming vaccination service, then there will also be primary care network practice-based clinics.”
A vaccine is recognised globally as the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ against a virus which has taken more than 55,000 lives across the United Kingdom.
By Matt Lee
Lead Image: Matt Lee