CORONAVIRUS: New Oxford vaccine to be delivered from Pilgrim Hospital say health chiefs

The Oxford University/AstraZeneca was approved for use starting this week, and Lincolnshire is once again getting early supplies.

The first dose was today given to an Intensive Care Unit doctor at the hospital.

The United Lincolnshire Health Trust, which operates Pilgrim Hospital, said in a statement: Following the announcement that the Oxford University/ AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine has been approved, the NHS in Lincolnshire is pleased to be working with colleagues across the county to ensure increased availability of the COVID-19 vaccine at the earliest opportunity.

“We are delighted that once again Lincolnshire is amongst the first in the country to be offering this vaccination at its Boston based hospital hub, as we were with the Pfizer vaccine through both the county’s hospital hub and Primary Care Networks.”

Lincolnshire was also one of the first to get the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which began to be rolled out in early December.

That vaccine was initially distributed from Lincolnshire County Hospital, also operated by ULHT, and is also now been delivered through GP surgeries in the county.

The new vaccine is also set to go out to surgeries, although no details of which have been confirmed yet.

Dr Kieran Sharrock, medical director for Lincolnshire’s Local Medical Committee told BBC Radio Lincolnshire on Monday that the figure for the Pfizer vaccine is from last week, and that more people had been vaccinated over the weekend.

More than 7,000 extra doses of the new Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine are being delivered to GP surgeries across the county in the coming week.

Care home residents, staff, people aged over 80 and NHS workers are at the front of the queue for the vaccine.