UK hospitals receive Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine for Monday rollout

Hospitals have been receiving batches of the newly approved Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine in preparation for its rollout on Monday.

About 530,000 doses of the vaccine will be available from the beginning of next week across the UK, with already identified vulnerable groups the priority for immunisation.

One of the first hospitals to take delivery of a batch on Saturday morning was the Princess Royal hospital in Haywards Heath, part of Brighton and Sussex University hospitals NHS trust.

Dr George Findlay, the trust’s chief medical officer and deputy chief executive, said hundreds of staff members a day were expected to be vaccinated at the site.

Given that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine can be kept at normal fridge temperature, he said it was much easier to administer than the Pfizer/BioNTech product, which requires cold storage at around -70C.

Rollout of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab began almost a month ago, with more than a million people having already received their first dose.

Second doses of both vaccines will now be given within 12 weeks rather than the 21 days initially planned, following a change in England’s public health guidance intended to accelerate immunisation.

The US infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci said on Friday he did he not agree with the UK’s approach of delaying the second dose and the US would follow Pfizer and BioNTech’s guidance to administer the second dose of its vaccine three weeks after the first.

The UK scheme seeks to ensure as many people as possible are immunised as quickly as can be, even though the vaccine is significantly less effective until people receive both jabs. It remains unclear whether the vaccines also block Covid transmission.

Among those to be vaccinated with the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab will be vulnerable NHS staff and social care workers who are at risk.

“We started vaccinating at our other hospital site a few weeks ago. It’s been seen as a really positive step, something that gives staff more confidence to come to work,” Findlay said of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab.

“You only have to look at the statistics over the last 10 months about how many staff have suffered illness, or sadly lost their lives. This gives staff the confidence to come to work to be able to look after patients.

“Staff are coping amazingly well, they are working incredibly hard, and we are increasing capacity to deal with the most sick patients. So whilst it’s really difficult, and staff are under pressure, the hospitals are coping and we are still providing care to everybody who needs it.”

Findlay said the hospital had decreased planned care, with some routine operations postponed to enable staff to focus on the Covid-19 response.

The rollout comes after officials defended England’s vaccine regimen after details of a contingency plan to potentially mix the two approved jabs in a small number of cases emerged.

Public Health England’s Covid “green book” recommends that “it is reasonable to offer one dose of the locally available product to complete the schedule” if the same vaccine used for the first dose is not available. But it adds: “There is no evidence on the interchangeability of the Covid-19 vaccines although studies are under way.”