Full week of vaccinations at centre for next batch
THOUSANDS of additional doses of the Covid vaccine have been given to the Bailiwick.
Director of Public Health Dr Nicola Brink gave an update on the vaccination roll-out yesterday, confirming that more than 24,000 doses have been administered.
About 20% of islanders have received the first dose and around 11% have received both doses.
The next weekly shipment will include 975 Pfizer doses and 7,640 AstraZeneca doses and the community vaccination centre will operate seven days a week to ensure all of those jabs can be carried out.
As more of the community becomes vaccinated against the virus, the chance of having to go back into a full lockdown in the event of another serious outbreak decreases.
Administering an effective vaccine has always been the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ for this crisis, Dr Brink said.
In the first 52-day wave, 13 people died from Covid-related causes and in the second 35-day wave, one person has died. However, the number of people infected in the second wave was double the number of people affected in the first.
Dr Brink said the number of people affected in older age groups and the absence of death in those groups undoubtedly shows the efficacy of the vaccination programme.
When it comes to vaccine passports, people who need to travel somewhere should educate themselves on what information they are being asked for in the jurisdiction they are visiting.
‘A vaccine passport may mean one thing to one person and another thing to another person,’ she said.
If an internationally recognised standard for vaccination passports became apparent, Public Health would look at developing something similar for people in the Bailiwick.
‘However, in the interim, if someone requires specific information we can help them with that.
‘That’s also why we’re giving people cards at the time they are vaccinated and some providers are happy with that as a proof of vaccination.’
Currently, the clinically vulnerable people in the island are being vaccinated.
While the uptake for the vaccine varies around the UK, the Bailiwick’s uptake is regularly described as ‘very good’.
Accurate data on the exact figure for uptake should be available next week.
While it is possible to have two different doses of vaccine, it is preferable that people’s second dose is with the same vaccine as their first.
At this stage it is not known whether having two different doses would be detrimental to its effectiveness or actually beneficial.
