After media stories over the weekend about the administration of Covid-19 vaccinations in Leicestershire my colleague, Neil O'Brien MP, has been in touch with the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and has posted this update:
I have been catching up with staff at our local hospitals over the weekend - here is a quick update on vaccinations in Leicestershire:
* We will start vaccinating members of the public here at the same time as the rest of the country, the week after next.
* It will be done across a number of community sites, not a single hospital hub (not least because we have three major hospitals, and the number of Covid patients in them is just dropping below the spring peak level)
* Your GP will contact you if you are in the first wave to get vaccinated: you don't need to do anything for now.
There is still a long way to go - it will be months before we have a large chunk of people vaccinated, and further vaccines (particularly the Oxford one) will make it much easier to vaccinate large numbers of people, because they don't need to be chilled to minus 80. Even so, this will be one of the biggest logistical challenges since the second world war. So we need to keep the virus under control for a bit longer.
But still, good news that vulnerable people here in Leicestershire will start being vaccinated in the coming weeks, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter, and next year life can finally get back to normal.
Posted by Neil O’Brien MP on Monday, 7 December 2020