NHS planning to start covid vaccination of under 50s by end of January

The NHS’ current plan for the covid vaccine rollout — dependent on the arrival of supplies — would see the whole adult population able to begin receiving it before the end of January, according to leaked documents.

Under the plan, everyone who wants to would have been vaccinated by early April.

NHS England’s draft covid-19 vaccine deployment programme, reveals when each cohort is likely to begin receiving it, based on its plans to create huge capacity across GP-run facilities, “large scale mass vaccination sites”, NHS trusts, and “roving models” for those who cannot travel.

It relies on a range of assumptions including that there will be 75 per cent takeup, outside of residential settings like care homes and prisons, where 100 per cent is expected.

The plan also relies on supplies, including more than 7 million doses being available in December. It is not clear what impact a delay to this would have on the rollout. With most doses due to be administered between early January and  mid March — at a rate of 4-5 million every week — a small delay may not make a huge impact to the overall schedule.

The document is dated 13 November and was shared among some senior NHS regional leaders yesterday.

The dates pencilled in for beginning each group are:

Care home residents and staff, healthcare workers - from beginning of December;

Ages 80 plus - from mid-December;

Everyone aged 70-80 - from late December;

Everyone aged 65-70 - from early January;

All high and moderate risk under 65s - from early January;

Everyone aged 50-65 - from mid January; and

Everyone aged 18-50 - from late January; but with the bulk of this group vaccinated during March.

The plan would see 88.5 million vaccination doses delivered across England, with two doses per person over the age of 18, by the end of April. The doses must be given 28 days apart, for both the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine (known in the planning documents by the codename Courageous) and the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine (known by the name Talent), according to the document.

https://www.hsj.co.uk/coronavirus/exclusive-nhs-planning-to-start-covid-vaccination-of-under-50s-by-end-of-january/7029015.article

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