Covid-19 Vaccine Update - April 2021
We thought it would be helpful to send out a reminder around the National Priority Groups for the COVID Vaccine Programme and have listed these below:
• residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
• front line (patient facing) health and social care workers
• clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
• everyone aged 50 and over
• those aged 16 to 64 with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality
• all adults with a learning disability – mild, moderate, severe and profound
• unpaid carers aged 16 to 64
• Adults experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping may also now be invited
• Household contacts of patients who are immunocompromised may also now have a vaccine. Letters will be sent by Scottish Government offering households the opportunity to book an appointment.
Additional to the above priority groups, here in Orkney we have offered the vaccine to everyone aged 34-50 years.
**If you fall into any of the above categories and have not yet had your first vaccine, please contact the Vaccination Centre on 0300 303 5313**
What is currently happening locally with the Vaccine Programme?
We are concentrating on ensuring patients are now receiving their second dose of the vaccine. For those patients who attended the mass vaccination clinics in February at The Balfour, letters are being sent out in the post and patients should start receiving these in the middle of next week. If you don’t receive an invite and think you should have then please phone the Vaccination Centre on 0300 303 5313 and we will investigate this for you, please do not call your GP Practice.
We will be sending out invite letters for those patients who attended the mass vaccination clinics at the Picky Centre at a later date.
Please be reassured that we do have enough vaccine to give everyone their second dose of vaccine. If patients have any queries or wish to learn more about the vaccination programme there is excellent information on the NHS Inform website https://www.nhsinform.scot/covid-19-vaccine
Also, can we please ask that you do not contact your GP Practice to ask for a Covid vaccination passport or status certificate – they will not be able to provide any standard document. International certification standards have not yet been agreed.
We hope you find this update helpful and wish to thank everyone for their support as we continue to work through the vaccination programme.