Thanet will be getting a large scale vaccination centre, county councillors were told today (January 22) at a members’ briefing.
Wilf Williams, Accountable Officer for NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the strategic lead for the NHS response to Coronavirus in Kent and Medway, told the briefing the site would be set up at a shopping centre – assumed to be Westwood Cross – although no date was given.
Kent’s large scale sites are predicted to be able to give 20,000 vaccines per week.
Mobile and outreach services for vaccinations will also be used.
Councillors were also told there was to be a large effort in vaccinating the over 80s living in Sandwich with assistance from GPs in Margate/Mocketts Wood hub.
Vaccination surgeries being carried out at St Peter’s Church Hall were highlighted for the good progress being made.
Some 2,200 people will receive vaccinations at the site tomorrow with the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
Dr Ash Peshen, from Northdown surgery, told The Isle of Thanet News earlier this week: “With Pfizer vaccinations we are getting patients to sit down for 15 minutes after their jab. This is because (nationally) there were some reactions to Pfizer’s vaccine so the government requested the 15 minutes although we have not had any problems and most GPs here have had the Pfizer jab and been happy with it.
“We do not need to do this with AstraZeneca and so we will be able to do 2,200 on Saturday.”
Mr Williams told county councillors at the briefing that the AstraZeneca vaccine is easier and so will enable better local access to vaccinations going forward.
County Councillor Karen Constantine praised all the staff involved in vaccination programmes across Thanet’s three GP hubs at Mocketts/Margate, Minster/Birchington and Ramsgate, saying: “Everyone has been working flat out and I congratulate hard working NHS staff and volunteers. They are on their feet for long hours and it is physically demanding.
“When people get their vaccination appointment I hope they will be positive and go and get it done.”
A large-scale vaccination centre is also set to open in Folkestone next week.
This month the vaccine developed by Moderna became the third to be approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
The Pfizer vaccine has to be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius. Moderna has said that its vaccine needs to be frozen too, at minus 20 Celsius.
The AstraZeneca vaccine can be stored and transported at normal refrigerated temperature.
There will be a delay in delivery of the Pfizer vaccine while the firm upgrades manufacturing facilities.
This will temporarily impact shipments in late January to early February but there will be a significant increase in doses available for patients in late February and March.
GP vaccination hubs
| Minster Surgery | Westgate Surgery, Minster Surgery, St Peter’s Surgery, Birchington Medical Practice, Broadstairs Medical Practice, Ash Surgery |
| Mocketts Wood | The Limes Medical Centre, Northdown Surgery, Bethesda Medical Centre, Mocketts Wood Surgery |
| Montefiore Centre | The Grange Medical Practice, Summerhill Surgery, Dashwood Medical Centre, East Cliff Practice, Newington Road Surgery |
I am delighted at this news. The numbers for St Peters Hall are impressive and for Broadstairs GP lists so the quicker we can plough through the Ramsgate numbers at this new site the better. Westwood or the port makes ideal sense.
Well done.
But what if it’s not on my doorstep 🤷🏼♂️
Westwood Cross when it is raining and or windy is not particularly great unless they use the Ground Floor of the former Debenhams Store. However, This is fantastic news for Thanet and Fanet residents.
We won’t be getting the Moderna vaccine for some weeks yet. Something to do with Brexit. The EU offered to include us in their deal with the US, but Britain, being Great, and Sovereign, declined the offer. So Europe gets it this week, we get it in March.
Nelsonian eye Andrew? Obviously escaped your notice that the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine hasn’t even been approved yet by the bureaucratic European Medicines Agency plus the UK are well ahead in percentages of population vaccinated in the EU. Anything the EU offers is a poisoned chalice. Now let’s see all the EU fanatics and lovers start jumping up and down. Have a good weekend!!
I like the EU. I don’t at all think it’s a poisoned chalice. I am very keen on co-operative associations and don’t like to think of the UK as a segregated little nation rapidly losing its industries and grasping at straws.
Martha, why do you and Andrew always have to be so down and sad all the time?
You remoaner snowflakes lost and we’ve now officially left the EU after the people of this nation spoke. Suck it up and stop posting on every article about it.
We’re well ahead in vaccinating the nation with two superb vaccines, no other country in the EU compares.
Well done vaccination teams of the UK, keep up the hard work!!
Stop getting my name wrong, please. I am Marva not Martha . I really hope I don’t know you personally, and am not going to meet you when normal social activities resume, because to keep having a go at somebody (for months!) while using a pseudonym is a cowardly thing to do and I wouldn’t like to think that someone I know is “The Box”.
I will thanks and you
Andrew, this is simply not true. We have had lots more of the Pfizer vaccine and Oxford vaccine compared with Europe. If we had been part of the European Vaccine Programme we would have lost out.
Andrew – please check your facts before spouting drivel and please engage your brain. Types being used at various locations in Thanet are clearly mentioned.
“The European Union has approved the coronavirus vaccine from Moderna, leaving the UK trailing because of changes to post-Brexit drug approval rules.”
[https://pharmaphorum.com/news/uk-left-trailing-as-eu-quickly-approves-modernas-covid-19-vaccine/]
We could have had the Moderna vaccine right now, but for some reason that had got nothing to do with science or medicine the UK rejected the EU’s offer to join in with their package.
So, Europe has Moderna right now, and we won’t until later in the spring.
Is that a good result, or not?
Was it driven by science, or politics ?
Andrew, continue reading your fake news. Just don’t ram it down other people’s throats.
We have two excellent vaccines right now, and were vaccinating more people, faster than any other EU country.
Why are you so mad about that?
I’m full of gratitude for the efforts put in by our scientists (and those of other nations, too) who have helped develop these vaccines.
Nevertheless, we only have two; we could have had three. But for some incomprehensible reason the government chose to reject the EU’s offer to come in with their Moderna deal.
Had we done so, we would have had not one, not two but three vaccines at our disposal. We could have vaccinated many more people with their first and second jabs.
But we can’t, because of our government’s crazy decision.
Yes, the Moderna will be available in the UK in a month or two: but it could have been here now.
Which do you think is better: two vaccines, or three?
reply to the box Andrew doesn’t like the fact that his beloved e u is behind Britain in this
I personally am not”down and sad”. Don’t know how Andrew feels. We have indeed left the EU but people still have opinions about it, which they wish to express.
What does “is behind Britain in this” mean?
you know Marva not ahead of Britain but behind not in front?
Are you referring to the fact that we could have had three vaccines available (Pfizer, Oxford/AstraZeneca and Moderna) but we’ve only got two?
We might be ahead of Europe, but we could have been even more so, but for an absurd decision by this government. We could have been injecting Moderna in addition to the itger two now, but we can’t. We have to wait for some weeks for no reason other than pig-headedness by our government.
never satisfied are you?
What are we ahead of EU countries in, apropos vaccines? I thought Britain’s access to the Moderna vaccine was being delayed.
Much better and simpler to have stayed in the EU and get our MEPs to speak on our behalf in the European Parliament, than to leave after a campaign based on public ignorance and government misinformation.
Martha,
You do talk some rubbish, you also spread fake news. Luckily for you, many people that read the comments aren’t as thick as you and Andrew.
Also I’d like to remind you of the EU referendum result, where the people spoke and voted to leave the EU. Over 17 million people voted to leave and that’s precisely what has happened.
If you don’t like or understand democracy Martha, move county. Actually, please do… then we wouldn’t have to put up with you and your snowflake like behaviour.
Suck it up, Martha.
to the box boy are you for it now? will be interesting to see what names you get called still while Marva is having a go at you she will be leaving me alone,hopefully.
Would you outline for us the amazing benefits leaving Europe has brought us?
Other than nebulous concepts such as “Sovereignty”, “Making Britain Great Again” and “Taking back are [sic] borders”, what has leaving Eurpoe brought us?
Suck this up “The Box” only 37% of the electorate voted to leave the EU (52% of 72% of the turnout = 37%) Those who didn’t vote probably didn’t know what they were going to vote for, and until just before last Christmas they were right! No one knew what the Terms & Conditions were to leave, and over 4 years later they are just beginning to find out! Thats why there were traffic jambs of thousands of trucks stuck at docks, and many more are vowing never to export/import again due to all the paper work, delaying them in France and Britain! A Lorry doesn’t earn when its stuck in a traffic jamb! So, the only reason all those people who voted to leave the EU did so without knowing what they were voting for, except that they didn’t like foreigners!
!
For goodness sake Andrew quit your moaning nothing changes overnight you are a miserable and negative person beyond belief typical traits of a remoaner
Would you outline for us the amazing benefits leaving Europe has brought us?
Other than nebulous concepts such as “Sovereignty”, “Making Britain Great Again” and “Taking back are [sic] borders”, what has leaving Eurpoe brought us?
Give me a few reasons to be positive.
I think Andrew is referring to that fact that our government turned down an offer from the EU to share in its Moderna vaccine deal, resulting in us only having two thirds of the jabs we could have had.
Andrew forgot about the newly-happy British fish!
Why do all the Brexit enthusiasts who post comments on IoFN seem so rude? Why do they think that people who’d rather stay in the EU are “sad”, “miserable”, “negative”,”moaning”individuals? Why do they call us “thick”, “drivel-spouting” “snowflakes” and “fanatics”?
And why do EU supporters in general not use these banal insults about them when posting here?
IoTN