GPs begin giving coronavirus vaccine in England today - all you need to know

After months of anticipation, GPs in England will finally start administering the coronavirus vaccine to patients from today.

Practices in more than 100 parts of England are taking delivery of the vaccine today, with some opening clinics as early as this afternoon.

Dr Nikki Kanani, practising GP and NHS Director of Primary Care, said: “GPs, nurses, pharmacists and other primary care staff are eager to play their part in protecting people against coronavirus.

“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.

“As a GP I am proud to be part of this 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.”

Here’s everything you need to know about the coronavirus rollout at GPs.

Who will be offered the vaccine first?

Patients over the age of 80 are first in line for the Covid vaccine.

However, doctors have also been advised how to prioritise patients if there are more than 975 people over the age of 80 at their practice.

A letter from NHS England last week told GPs: "If your site potentially has more than 975 patients over 80 years who may wish to be vaccinated, and you need to prioritise which patients should have access to the first supply of vaccine to your designated site, then you could consider the following: i. Age 80 or over; ii. Co-morbidities; iii. Ethnicity."

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has set the order of priority for the coronavirus vaccine rollout in the UK.

Care home residents and staff will be the first to receive the vaccine, followed by those over 80 and health and social workers.

The vaccine will then be given to those over 75, before being rolled out to Brits of descending age:

1. older adults’ resident in a care home and care home workers

2. all those 80 years of age and over and health and social care workers

3. all those 75 years of age and over

4. all those 70 years of age and over

5. all those 65 years of age and over

6. high-risk adults under 65 years of age

7. moderate-risk adults under 65 years of age

8. all those 60 years of age and over

9. all those 55 years of age and over

10. all those 50 years of age and over

rest of the population (priority to be determined)

How long does the jab take?

While the jab itself takes a matter of seconds, each patient needs to be observed for 15 minutes after being injected to monitor for any allergic reactions.

Dr June Raine, Chief Executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), said: “Anaphylaxis is a known, although very rare, side effect with any vaccine. Most people will not get anaphylaxis and the benefits in protecting people against Covid-19 outweigh the risks.”

Should an allergic reaction occur in response to the vaccine, thankfully all healthcare professionals who administer the jab will have been trained to know how to respond.

Speaking to The Mirror, Dr Kat Basford at Online Doctor, Zava, said: “All healthcare professionals who administer vaccinations will have been trained to manage allergic reactions, and should have access to emergency equipment and medication if a severe reaction were to happen unexpectedly.

“In some cases, where a person is known to have had a severe reaction in the past, it may be recommended that the vaccine is given in a hospital setting where the patient can be monitored more closely.”

How many vaccines are available?

GPs at 280 sites will deliver more than 270,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine from today.

Each site will be expected to deliver 975 doses of vaccine across a 3.5-day period - suggesting the 280 sites will administer a total of around 273,000 doses of vaccine next week.

NHS England said it worked with clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to select the initial sites.

A letter from NHS England said: “We are working closely with CCGs to identify sites that will be ready to deliver vaccinations in that week; the number of sites coming on stream initially will vary by CCG according to the proportion of its population over 80, reflecting the priority groups selected by JCVI. CCGs have been asked to consider inequalities and deprivation when selecting sites.”

Do you need to get the flu jab too?

The NHS recommends having both the coronavirus vaccine and the flu vaccine.

It said: “Flu vaccination is important because: if you're at higher risk from coronavirus, you're also more at risk of problems from flu, if you get flu and coronavirus at the same time, research shows you're more likely to be seriously ill, it’ll help to reduce pressure on the NHS and social care staff who may be dealing with coronavirus.”

“If you've had COVID-19, it's safe to have the flu vaccine. It'll be effective at helping to prevent flu.”

Mirror