More than 20,000 people across Fife have now been given their first Covid-19 jab as the region’s vaccination programme continues apace, The Courier can reveal.
Health chiefs in the Kingdom say they are confident that all care home residents and staff, those aged 80 and over and frontline health and social care workers will have been vaccinated by February 5, while NHS Fife insists it is “well-placed” to meet other timescales – with high-risk 16 to 64-year-olds and people over 50 in line to start receiving jabs as early as March.
Twelve community clinics are also being established with the help of the military, while the health board’s own army of vaccinators is being more than doubled from an initially envisaged 160 to more than 300.
The details have emerged in a report by NHS Fife’s chief pharmacist Ben Hannan, who said the health board had – as of Wednesday this week – directly vaccinated over 19,000 people.
Around 11,000 of that figure consists of NHS, social care and GP staff, with 2,900 care home staff, 2,200 care home residents, 2,500 over 80s and 400 people in other groups all given the jab so far.
With that in mind, NHS Fife hopes to have around 32,000 people aged 70 and over vaccinated by mid-February, 21,000 people aged 65-70 done by early March, and high-risk 16 to 64-year-olds and those aged over 50 to have received a first vaccination by early May with vaccinations starting in early March.
Mr Hannan confirmed: “The board is well-placed to meet these demands, given the extensive work undertaken to recruit and reassign staff, the identification of robust and sizable community venues and utilisation of an appropriate scheduling system.
“Supply of the Pfizer vaccine has been delivered as expected, allowing for the vaccination of staff at four clinic sites (Victoria Hospital, Queen Margaret Hospital, St Andrews Community Hospital and Randolph Wemyss Memorial Hospital).
“Supply of the AZ/Oxford vaccine has been limited, but timely thus far.
“Most GP practices have received 200 doses of the vaccine (many have received more) to vaccinate their own staff and the over 80s cohort.
“The board has made plans for allocations to practices over the coming weeks, ensuring the full cohort can be vaccinated.
“To date, the board has been receiving at most seven days’ notice of available supply, which makes planning challenging.
“But this is expected to improve shortly, and the programme team have managed this requirement successfully thus far.”
Mr Hannan similarly revealed that a third vaccine product, by Moderna, is anticipated to be available in April.
As of January 20, a total of 12 venues have been confirmed for use as community clinics, including East End Park, home to Dunfermline Athletic Football Club.
Other venues are the Parkgate Community Centre, Dunfermline East Church, Lochgelly Centre, Templehall Community Centre, Randolph Wemyss Memorial Hospital, the Rothes Halls in Glenrothes, Cupar Corn Exchange, the East Neuk Centre in Anstruther, The Larick Centre in Tayport, St Andrews Community Hospital, and Tayside Institute Community Centre in Newburgh.
All have been selected to ensure accessibility across the area, and assurance is in place regarding public and private transport links.
Mr Hannan also noted the initial plan to employ around 160 vaccinators of various grade had been “revised” to over 300.
Work which will enable dentists and optometrists to act as vaccinators is also “close to completion”, Mr Hannan continued, with four training hubs set up to allow practice of injection technique.
