Since the beginning of the year, there has been a massive national effort to get the vaccine rolled out. One of the first sites to come online locally was at Tangmere where the fantastic staff and volunteers, led by Jenna, have vaccinated over 17,000 people. I visited the centre at the end of last week, to thank the team for their brilliant work and see how the operation was coming along.
Once again, I was hugely impressed by the efficiency of the system with a steady flow of people over 65 getting their second jab of Oxford AstraZeneca at the site. Despite the relatively small size of the centre, they’re doing 800 jabs per day now.
On the day I was shown around by the wonderful Dr Chishick, Dr Gupta and Dr Smith who are all part of The Chichester Alliance of Medical Practices, the group of GPs running the site. They also manage the community services, reaching some of the most vulnerable people by vaccinating them at home, so far they’ve vaccinated well over 3,000 people.
Nationally the programme continues to go from strength to strength, with more than 45 million vaccines delivered already in the UK, a figure climbing every day. This week those over the age of 44 are being asked to come forward to get their jab.
As life becomes more normal every day it is easy to forget other countries are not faring so well. India in particular has been hit hard over recent weeks. We have all seen the heartbreaking reality of this pandemic as essential medical supplies have been in short supply.
This week the UK Government stepped in and have sent 600 pieces of vital equipment to India to support their response. The equipment includes hundreds of oxygen concentrators, along with two different types of ventilators. This equipment will be crucial in helping to save lives. The oxygen concentrators, in particular, can extract oxygen from the air so that it can be provided to patients; taking the strain off hospital oxygen systems and allowing oxygen to be provided in situations where hospital oxygen supplies have run out.
As a Government we will continue to support other countries around the world and the Prime Minister has been clear that we’ll do everything we can to support the international community in the global fight against the pandemic.
