How the coronavirus vaccine rollout is going in Herefordshire

The coronavirus vaccinations were first administered in Herefordshire last month, with more than 1,000 vaccinated in and around Ross-on-Wye alone.

The NHS is currently not releasing figures on how many people have had the jab in a local authority area, but Alton Street Surgery GP Dr Simon Lennane said 1,260 patients from south and west Herefordshire had been given the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab.

He said his primary care network, one of five in Herefordshire to have a vaccination site, is ready to start giving out even more jabs at the Larruperz Centre in Grammar School Close when they arrive.

"We're so keen to get it done and I'm so privileged to be in a position where I can make a difference," he said.

"From our point of view we're really motivated to get as many patients through as possible because that's how we get out of this mess.

"That's how we get out of Covid really."

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He added: "I can see the point of mass vaccination centres, but I think it's important to keep it close to people's homes, especially for the elderly patients we're doing at the moment.

"It makes a lot of sense, but we'd like to be doing it at people's surgeries, because we've got people coming over from Kingstone and the Golden Valley."

The Larruperz Centre in Ross-on-Wye where vaccination clinics are held

As well as a mass vaccination site at Malvern's Three Counties Showground for those living in Herefordshire, Dr Lennane said the team in Ross-on-Wye are ready to start vaccinating more patients.

"I think at the moment that's the only plan for a mass site, and the problem at the moment is the vaccine availability, not lack of sites.

"We could go twice the speed if we had the vaccines."

Each of Herefordshire's five primary care networks has a centre, with two in Hereford, one in Ledbury and one in Leominster.

He said the system is not perfect at the moment as deliveries are confirmed around 48 hours before the vaccine arrives, meaning surgeries have to contact and book in around 1,000 patients in two days.

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But Dr Lennane remains upbeat, saying doctors will "take anything" as they hurry to provide some immunity to vulnerable groups at the top of the priority list.

A new booking system is being developed, which he says should make the process a lot easier, as currently it's a "huge amount of work to get people into the clinics at short notice".

But the NHS message remains to not contact them about the vaccine, they will contact patients.

If vaccinators are careful with the amount of the vaccine they use, 1,150 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab can come from a single batch, but this needs to be used within three days.

A nurse draws up the Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Picture: Ian Forsyth/PA Wire

Able to get more vaccines that the advertised 975 per batch, Dr Lennane said he doesn't want to waste a drop so at the end of the day will book in more patients.

It comes as NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said the health service is vaccinating at a rate of “140 jabs a minute” and will start testing 24/7 vaccinations in some hospitals in the next 10 days.

NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens at a vaccination centre in London. Picture: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

More than 3.5 million people in the UK have now received their first dose of a vaccine and some 324,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines were administered in the space of 24 hours.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the Government hoped that 88 per cent of those most at risk of dying from coronavirus would receive their first jab by the middle of February – with 99 per cent by the early spring.

After then, he suggested, lockdown restrictions could be gradually eased – with a possible return to the tiered system.