DR BEN SPENCER MP
Right now letters are landing on residents’ doormats, text messages being sent, and calls being made to invite people across Runnymede and Weybridge to receive a covid vaccination. Protecting people from covid, saving many lives and vaccinating us out of this pandemic.
On 16 December, just 14 days after the Pfizer vaccine received approval, Runnymede and Weybridge’s first vaccination centre opened in Chertsey Hall. I had the privilege of meeting the team delivering the vaccination programme there and was incredibly impressed by the measures in place to deliver over 300 vaccines per day. The quick set up of this site was in no small part due to the support of local GPs and community.
Since then we have seen the launch of a second local site at the Hythe Centre in Egham, the opening of a mass vaccination centre in Epsom which is able to deliver thousands more vaccinations locally, the use of mobile vaccination units since early January, delivering vaccinations to care home residents and staff. Most recently we have seen the opening of St Peter’s Hospital as a new hospital hub and the start of vaccination rollout to those who cannot leave their homes.
The scale and speed of this rollout has been truly astounding as has again the community response in supporting it. Through the measures we have put in place, we are on target to have ensured all over 70s, front line health and care and care workers, and those who are extremely clinically vulnerable, will have been offered the vaccine within 2 months of local delivery being established. This supports the national vaccination delivery plan which seeks to ensure every adult in England has been offered the vaccine by Autumn this year.
I want to thank everyone involved in this process, which truly is a testament of what can be achieved when we all work together for a common aim. From the scientists who helped develop the vaccine, to the administrators of the programme, delivery drivers for the vaccine, hundreds of volunteers, and of course our amazing health care staff, they are all local heroes who deserve recognition for their efforts.
The announcement in December that the first vaccine had been approved and would be used in the UK was a major breakthrough, one which marks the beginning of the end for this pandemic. But for now we all need to follow the rules, stay home unless it is necessary and permitted to leave, maintain social distancing, regularly wash hands and wear a mask when you are out of the home, and ensure you isolate and obtain a test if you develop covid symptoms. Together we can minimise the spread of covid until the vaccination programme can be delivered, and we can see the end of this pandemic.