It was matron of St John’s Residential Home, Dr Sue Fleming, who was first in the chair, with a crowd of media representatives documenting the landmark event.
She was followed by other residential and care home staff, as well as frontline health and care workers who are in the top priority group for receiving the vaccine.
Santa wheeled the tray of vaccines into the Emma Ferbrache room of the Princess Elizabeth Hospital, which is where the first, smaller, vaccination centre has been set up.
Hospital staff had a mixture of emotions: relief that Guernsey had got to this point with no current evidence of community seeding and low active case numbers; excitement at the moment; anticipation for it all to go well and a sense of pride that all of the hard work that began towards the end of 2019 was paying off.
Health protection nurse Jo Rocha administered the first dose in the hyper-clean environment and there was a round of applause afterwards in celebration.
Ms Rocha has been instrumental in the island’s response to the pandemic, working closely with nurse Alex Hawkins-Drew, who is head of Public Health for women and children’s services and Public Health lead for the Covid-19 vaccination programme.
It was fitting that someone so close to the response administered the first vaccine and Ms Rocha said it was quite symbolic that, as someone who had been involved from the start, she was able to kick-start the beginning of the end of this crisis.
‘I wasn’t nervous, I was more thinking about how this is a very important step in getting back to normality so that superseded any stress,’ she said.
After finishing her 15-minute observation period in the vaccination centre, Dr Fleming said it was a privilege to be the first person in the Bailiwick to receive a dose.
‘It’s OK to feel anxious about getting it, but as a healthcare professional I have a duty of care to people I work with so for me the decision to get the vaccine was clear.’
Although normally working quietly behind the scenes and not being used to large cameras pointing at her, Dr Fleming did not need to be persuaded to allow the media to view her injection.
‘It felt a bit surreal and I normally prefer to be in the background, but this is a really historical day and it’s important that we get the right message out there about the vaccination programme and encourage everyone who is offered it to get on board.’
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