By Richard Whitehouse

NHS workers and people working in adult social care will be made the top priority for the Covid-19 vaccine when it starts to be given out in Cornwall. Regulators this morning (Wednesday) approved the vaccine for use in Britain.

It will be distributed next week with those working on the frontline with patients being vaccinated first.

Dr Rob White, GP and clinical lead for NHS Kernow, gave an update to the NHS Kernow governing body after taking part in a national call on the vaccination programme.

He said that the first cohorts had been identified for the first vaccination which will be the one developed by Pfizer.

This vaccine has to be stored at -70 degrees which means that it has to be administered at a designated site and is not suitable for being moved around.

Dr White said: “It will almost certainly be frontline staff (who get it first) healthcare workers. It is a very broad definition so care staff as well, anyone with patient contact which people will be relieved to hear.

“They will be done at mass vaccination centres and bases. That is the way the Pfizer vaccination will be delivered.”

Dr White said that people in care homes would be the next to receive a vaccination and said it was likely that would be using the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca.

He said: “Probably, at the moment, it will be older care home patients and the over 80s who will have the mobile vaccination secondly using the AstraZeneca vaccination.”

Dr White said that it was expected that primary care service providers would administer the vaccine in those settings.

The GP paid tribute to those working to roll out the vaccination programme saying: “It is an incredible piece of work to be fair and there are lots of people working very, very, very hard on our behalf, I am very reassured.”

The governing body said that as a work in process the situation was moving and changing very fast “not just by the day, but by the hour”.

Natalie Jones, chief nursing officer, said that it was hoped that community vaccination would roll out in Cornwall in January.

BBC Local Democracy Service