SEASIDERS expecting to see their town’s community venue turned into a mass vaccination centre may be waiting a little longer than they first thought, it has been revealed. In December, Frinton and Walton Town Council said the NHS had confirmed it would be hiring the Columbine Centre, in Princes Esplanade, Walton. It was understood the health service would take on the site to administer the PfizerBioNTech Covid-19 vaccine as part of the roll out of the biggest vaccination programme in its history. Although this remains the case, a health source believes the transformation of the centre into a fully functioning hub could still be at least a month away, if not longer.
ELDERLY residents in north Essex are being urged to be patient after bombarding surgeries with calls for the Covid-19 vaccine. It comes as GP practices across Colchester and Tendring have been inundated with calls from patients eager for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group has so far given out all the 2,000 doses it had, mostly to vulnerable and high-risk patients in their 80s. They were vaccinated over the past two weeks at temporary clinics set up at the St Helena Hospice’s Tendring Centre in Clacton and Colchester Primary Care Centre. It is understood that across north east Essex and south Suffolk that there are 20 primary care sites and 16 temporary mass vaccination sites being geared up to deliver the vaccine from as early as January 11.
How is it being rolled out in Suffolk?
Nearly 6,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been received by the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care System and were administered the week before last.
There are three different types of facilities doing the jabs; primary care network hubs, eg doctors surgeries, hospitals and vaccination centres such as Gainsborough Sport Centre.
The Swan Surgery in Bury, Woolpit Health Centre, Two Rivers Medical Centre and Ivry Street Medical Practice in Ipswich, Saint Helena Hospice in Clacton and Colchester Primary Care Centre are all primary care network hubs.
They have each been given just short of 2,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and began administering them on Tuesday, December 15.