COVID VACCINE: Care Home Vaccine ‘Milestone’ Reached in England

Prime Minister Boris Johnson portrayed the accomplishment on covid vaccine circulations to safe houses, to be a crucial milestone, and the achievement is set to be confirmed by official figures on Monday.

February 15 is the United Kingdom’s targeted date to vaccinate care home residents and carers, people over 70, and frontline care workers.

The first round of the covid vaccine has been administering to almost nine million people living in the United States.

NHS England reported that “over 10,000 care homes with older residents had been offered jabs, though a small remainder of the care homes had visits postponed by local public health directors for safety reasons during local outbreaks.”

NHS also adds that the remaining homes will be visited by vaccinators as soon NHS staffs are permitted to do so.

Scotland has administered the vaccine to 98% of older people in care homes and 88% of care home staff. In Wales, 75% of care home residents have been administered their first dose of the vaccine, with Northern Ireland declaring its care homes has been 100% vaccinated.

However, the United Kingdom has requested an extra 40 million doses of the covid vaccine from the French pharmaceutical company Valneva, which is expected to be ready during the end of the year and 2022.

Boris Johnson said vaccines were the route out of the pandemic but advised there will be difficult moments to come with the number of cases and people in the hospital still dangerously high.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited a vaccination center in Batley, West Yorkshire, where he made it public that ” virtually all elderly care home residents had received their first vaccine or been given an appointment for it.”

He said he was confident that we have the supplies to ensure that people would receive their second jab within the government’s 12-week timetable.

Helen Whately, the Social Care Minister, also told the news that the vaccine had been administered to every care home in England, which is accessible by the vaccination team.

“Any care home that hasn’t been contacted, just let me know and I will personally follow up,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today program.

She was asked maybe the care home workers should be obliged to have the vaccine, and she said at the moment the government was trying to educate, encourage and reassure people who had reservations.” 

She also said there were no plans to give care home residents their second jab quicker to allow visiting, but the government worked on what we can do to enable visiting again.