Island readies for arrival of the Moderna vaccine

In the UK, there have been some issues with procuring all of the vaccines that were expected. The Bailiwick receives a ‘proportionate’ amount, 0.1% of the UK allocation.

‘We are dependent on them for the supply chain, but we’re also in the favourable position of being able to administer the vaccine if a particular area cannot,’ Director of Public Health Dr Nicola Brink said.

‘We’ll take as [many] vaccines as we can get but we will always be dependent on the UK supply chain and there’s a degree of unknown there.’

Currently the Bailiwick is using the Pfizer and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines but the Moderna vaccine is expected to be delivered at the end of April.

‘All of the policies, procedures and mechanisms are in place to deliver it as soon as it arrives,’ she said.

Younger people with no underlying health conditions known to them continue to be invited to book their vaccination appointment before they were expecting to do so.

Civil Contingencies Authority chairman Deputy Peter Ferbrache said to go back and look at rectifying these cases would take longer than just carrying on.

‘And the idea is to get people vaccinated,’ he said.

However, he believed the issue had been eradicated largely and generally the people who are being vaccinated have good reason to have been invited, even if that reason might not be obviously apparent.

Dr Brink added that anyone who feels they should be a priority and has not been called for a vaccination should contact the vaccination helpline so the situation can be assessed.

Immunity to the virus is fairly certain for up to six months after a natural infection or vaccine-induced immunity, but more work still needs to be done on whether top-ups will be needed or if annual booster jabs will be needed should variants develop an immunity to current vaccines.

Infrastructure for delivering that will depend on what the booster or top-up programmes will look like.