December 15, 2020 10.53 am This story is over 39 months old

Two community COVID-19 vaccination sites open in Lincolnshire

Next stage of rollout will be at GPs
| Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
By Local Democracy Reporter

The COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues across England, with local community sites dedicated to giving out the jab opening in two Lincolnshire towns.

The sites, set up by groups of health care providers including GP practices, will take delivery of the vaccine in more than 100 parts of the country.

In Lincolnshire, sites in Louth and Grantham will begin administering the vaccine from Tuesday, December 15.

It is the latest rollout of the Pfizer vaccine and will be coordinated by GP practices during December and in the coming months.

The move to GP practices comes after the initial vaccinations at hospitals, in which retired NHS worker Janet Judson became the first person in Lincolnshire to be given the coronavirus vaccine.

People aged 80 or over, as well as care home workers and residents, are the priority groups for the first phase of vaccine rollout, with frontline health and social care workers next on the list.

Patients will be contacted and invited for vaccination, and are being urged not to contact their practices enquiring about being vaccinated.

To see how far down the queue for the vaccine you are, check out The Lincolnite‘s story on it here.

Dr Dave Baker, GP and South West Lincolnshire locality lead for NHS Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group, praised the vaccination programme and the way it has progressed.

He said: “Healthcare professionals are already playing a key role across Lincolnshire in protecting people against coronavirus, and will continue to do so as the vaccination is rolled out to more people over the coming weeks and months.

“This is the greatest vaccination programme ever undertaken by the NHS and, to help vaccinate people safely we will be working with local communities to deliver it in convenient and familiar settings.

“This is a huge national effort to protect our patients against the virus and I would urge the public to come forward when they are called up for the vaccine.”