The NHS has offered the first COVID vaccinations to all care homes in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and contacted all local patients in the top priority cohorts too, with the vast majority having had their first jab.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough now have 23 Primary Care Sites, four Hospital Hubs, six Large Scale Vaccination Centres, and two Pharmacy Vaccination Sites open.

All vaccination sites that are currently live are now listed on the CCG website here. Click on the blue tab labelled ‘Which vaccination sites are now open in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough?’

Latest vaccination figures

215,034 doses of the vaccine have been administered in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough as at 14 February. More than 90 per cent of residents aged 70 or over in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination.

Advice for patients over 65 or clinically extremely vulnerable

If you are aged 65 or over, or Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (previously on the shielding list), and haven’t had your first dose yet, please come forward now and make an appointment at www.nhs.uk/covidvaccination, or by phoning 119 if you can’t use the internet.

Information for carers

Carers are included in the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s advice to Government regarding the priority groups for the COVID-19 vaccine. Carers should be included in cohort 6 for COVID-19 vaccination if they fit the definition of ‘adult carers’ in the Green Book chapter on COVID-19 vaccination.

This definition is: “Those who are eligible for a carer’s allowance, or those who are the sole or primary carer of an elderly or disabled person who is at increased risk of COVID-19 mortality and therefore clinically vulnerable.”

Eligible adult carers will be contacted via the National Booking System (NBS) to receive an invitation to book a vaccination once a list has been compiled by NHSE/I in conjunction with local authorities.

Information to patients added to the Shielded Patient List

A number of patients are being added to the Shielded Patient List because they have been identified through the COVID-19 Population Risk Assessment as potentially being at high risk of serious illness if they catch the virus. 

The COVID-19 Population Risk Assessment is based on a model known as QCovid, which was developed by a group of researchers led by the University of Oxford. It combines data on a number of factors to estimate the risk of catching and then being hospitalised by or dying from coronavirus. The model has been used nationally by NHS Digital to calculate risk assessments for a group of individuals in England who are likely to be at high risk, based on patient data that is held centrally.

More information on the COVID-19 Population Risk Assessment can be found on the NHS Digital website.

If you have been added to the Shielded Patient List, the NHS will contact you to offer you the vaccine as soon as appointments become available. The NHS may contact you via text message, letter or a phone call to offer an appointment.

You can find answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the Shielded Patient List here.

Finally

NHS staff are doing an incredible job to deliver the vaccination programme, at the same time as continuing to be there for everyone who needs care.

We the public have an important part to play to help them do this.

• Unless you are over 65 or Clinically Extremely Vulnerable, please don’t contact the NHS to seek a vaccine. The NHS will contact you when it is the right time.
• When the NHS does contact you, please attend your booked appointment at exactly the time you’re asked to, to avoid queues in the cold weather.
• And whether you have had your vaccine or not, please continue to follow all the guidance in place to control the virus and save lives.