[ad_1]
TThe priority list for the coronavirus vaccine is “flexible,” senior doctors have insisted, amid fears that nursing home residents will have to wait for the Oxford University vaccine.
Professor Anthony Harnden, Vice Chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI), said that while nursing homes are at the top of the priority list, logistical issues with the Pfizer jab mean there could be a delay. in bringing it to residents and staff.
The vaccine is shipped to the UK from Belgium and must be stored at around -70 ° C, which creates “limitations” on how the vaccine can be administered.
“We have warned in our statement that there is flexibility in approaching this list according to what was actually feasible and logistical on the ground, so this is not entirely unexpected, but the clear list that we have drawn up is a list of priorities in terms of vulnerability, “Professor Harnden told BBC Radio 4’s Today program.
Dr Frank Atherton, Wales’s chief medical officer, said problems in the transportation of the Pfizer vaccine meant that people would have to travel to a central facility to receive their vaccine.
He told the Today show: “At the moment, the idea is that people come to get the vaccine.
“We are of course concerned about particularly frail older people living in nursing homes, they are a very clear priority for us here in Wales, and we are trying to find ways to get the vaccine to people, but at that time it is the model that people will move towards. “
Follow the latest updates below.
[ad_2]
