MORE than 150 care home residents from five nursing and residential homes have been given their first of two Covid-19 jabs.
Hereford Medical Group said more than 150 of its patients were given the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccination on Tuesday (December 29).
Herefordshire Council said: “After a fantastic effort, the teams managed to visit five homes and vaccinate over 150 residents and some staff, thereby providing the protection of the vaccine to some of our most vulnerable patients.
“We will have more teams out today to visit another three homes and we would like to thank everyone for lending their time in the week between Christmas and new year to undertake this important service.”
The owner and chief executive of Herefordshire Care Homes, which runs six properties in the county, said the first dose being given to some residents gives some light at the end of the tunnel.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, staff have been wearing face masks and other PPE while caring for residents, and visits have been disrupted.
Mrs Rogers said that while this wouldn’t come to an end, residents were thrilled to be given the dose.
“It’s super-exciting, it’s been pretty relentless for the last 10 months, as you can imagine,” she said.
“We have six homes in the group, so to start that is just great.
“We heard about it before Christmas that Hereford Medical Group was offered the vaccine for our residents.
“It came off the back of vaccinating all of our staff in the group before Christmas. We had a huge vaccination programme so we’re very positive, as you can imagine, just having the staff vaccinated, and now we’re starting to vaccinate residents.”
She said: “Everyone was vaccinated and they were clapping their hands with joy and just saying we can get life back to normal.”
Patients have to be given two does of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine three weeks apart for immunity.
There is further hope as the jab from Oxford University and AstraZeneca has been approved for use, paving the way for mass roll-out from January 4.
The jab has been given the green light by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
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