The first COVID-19 vaccination in Tayside has been delivered at Ninewells to staff nurse Linda Smyth as clinics began at the hospital. Linda is one of the trained COVID vaccinators who will be delivering the jabs.
NHS Tayside’s COVID Vaccination Programme Board has been working with partners to finalise the vaccine delivery plans for Tayside and the first vaccinations against COVID-19 have been given to healthcare staff at Ninewells Hospital today.
The first group to receive the jab was some of the immunisers who will be giving the vaccination to others, including other frontline staff working in high risk areas, such domestic staff, porters, nurses, allied health professionals and consultants. A total of 41 staff received the vaccination at the first clinic today.
Staff nurse Linda Smyth, who is one of the COVID-19 vaccinators, was the first person in Tayside to receive the vaccine today from staff nurse Marion McLaggan.
Linda said, “It feels absolutely brilliant to be the first person to have the vaccine today, I’m delighted to have it. We've been looking forward to this for a long time and I hope it encourages more of my colleagues to come and have the vaccination soon. It’s a great day for us all.”
Marion added, “It’s really exciting to be part of this. We’ve had really good support and training and we’re all raring to go.”
Due to the logistics of storing the vaccine, the first vaccination clinics are taking place at Ninewells, which is the vaccine holding centre for Tayside, and will initially focus on frontline health and social care workers.
Director of Public Health Dr Emma Fletcher said, “This is a significant step in our fight against COVID-19 and I’m so pleased to see the first vaccinations delivered in Tayside today.
“This has been the result of a huge amount of planning by teams across NHS Tayside and the Health and Social Care Partnerships, including Public Health, GPs, Pharmacy, Workforce, Finance, Procurement, Support Services, Staff Side colleagues and the Digital Directorate. I am so thankful to everyone who has been working hard over the past few weeks to get us to this stage.
“The Vaccine Services team in Tayside took delivery of the vaccine yesterday and has been busy preparing doses for the first clinics taking place this week.
“We will have limited doses of the vaccine available over the first few weeks and, as those being vaccinated need two doses at least 21 days apart, half of the vaccines need to be held back to give the second injection.
“This means that we need to offer the jab to our frontline health and social care staff on a phased basis according to their risk. It is hoped that care home residents and staff will be offered the vaccine in their own care homes from 14 December.
“It is not known yet whether having the vaccine stops you spreading the virus to others so it’s important that everyone continues to stick to the restrictions and follow the advice on physical distancing, hand washing, face coverings and self-isolation and testing.”
To reduce the risk to themselves and to others, health and social care workers are strongly encouraged to get vaccinated when they are offered the jab.