Vaccination programme reaches first milestone

All nursing and residential home residents who were medically eligible and willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccination have now received their first dose, making Jersey one of the first places in the world to vaccinate this group. 

Having completed Tier 1 of the programme, the team are now delivering the vaccine to care and residential home staff and care agency staff at the COVID-19 Vaccination Centre at Fort Regent, which opened on Saturday. 

This weekend, 400 care and residential home workers received the first dose of the vaccine, with a further 400 due to be vaccinated today and tomorrow. The remainder will be vaccinated in the week beginning 28 December 2020.

To date, over 1300 Islanders have received their first dose.

People who have received the first dose of the vaccine will be ready to receive the second dose 21 days later. One week after people receive the second dose, they will normally have 95% immunity to COVID-19.

In keeping with the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Vaccine and Immunisation, once care home and home care staff have been vaccinated, Islanders aged over 80 years, and then those working in health and social care services will recieve the vaccine.

Becky Sherrington, Vaccine Programme Lead, said: “I’m proud to say that our team have now delivered the COVID-19 vaccine to the Island’s most vulnerable people in just one week. Moving on to vaccinate care home and home care workers means that we will be able to provide an extra layer of protection for our care home residents.”

Minister for Health and Social Services, Deputy Richard Renouf, said: “We have reached a milestone in our fight against COVID-19. With each group of Islanders we vaccinate, we move closer to restoring a sense of normality to our Island.

“I’d like to extend a sincere thanks to all the team who have worked tirelessly over the last week to help us reach this milestone.”