The first patients in England began to be vaccinated against Covid-19 on Tuesday 8 December at hospital hubs around the country. This vaccine roll out is now being complemented by local vaccination services provided by GP practices.
GP practices have been working with St Helens Clinical Commissioning Group to vaccinate their registered patients based on age and clinical risk as set out by the JCVI (the Government's Joint Committee on Vaccination and immuninisation).
Please be patient - our GPs can only vaccinate as many patients as supplies allow. You do not need to contact your GP surgery as you will be contacted directly when it is your turn to have the vaccine.
Our website home page and Facebook channel will give updates on our vaccine rollout and which groups we are currently vaccinating.
The vaccine will be offered in age and risk order:
Those aged 50-64 will be offered the vaccine later.
If you are not in one of the groups above you will have to wait until more supplies of the vaccine become available.
The vaccine is given as two injections, now 10-11 weeks apart following revised JCVI guidance, with the second dose being a booster. Immunity begins to kick in after the first dose but reaches its full effect seven days after the second dose.
People with a history of significant allergic reactions to medicines, food or vaccine should not have the vaccine at this time.
Our GP clinical lead for the vaccine roll out in St Helens, Dr Hilary Flett has put together a short video to provide an update on the current position regarding the vaccination programme in St Helens. Click play below:
Detailed information on the vaccine is available here:
www.gov.uk/government/collections/immunisation
www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/coronavirus-vaccine
As well as a patient leaflet which can be downloaded:
Covid-19 vaccination guide for adults
The Covid vaccination is only available through the NHS to eligible groups and is a free vaccination.