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Health chiefs reveal when every adult in Bristol should be vaccinated against Covid-19
Health chiefs are on track to vaccinate every adult in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) from Covid-19 by the summer.
And they expect it to become an annual jab like the flu after local medics found no side effects for the vast majority of people, a council meeting heard.
As of February 21, 249,446 vaccines have been administered across the area.
Clinical lead for the vaccination programme and deputy medical director at North Bristol NHS Trust, Dr Tim Whittlestone, said the region was on target for all over-50s to have a coronavirus jab by the end of April.
He told Bristol City Council’s health scrutiny committee: “If you take everyone over the age of 50 together with everyone who is clinically extremely vulnerable or has an underlying health condition then you will be addressing 99 per cent of the preventable mortality from Covid-19.”
He said the area covered by BNSSG clinical commissioning group had completed immunising all residents over 70 and those most at risk from the virus.
People will receive an Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine or BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine. Photo: Claire Hayhurst
Dr Whittlestone said they were now working through the next priority groups – over-65s and people aged 16 to 64 with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk, such as asthma and diabetes.
He said: “From the very start in BNSSG we interpreted learning disabilities as being a cohort of patients in that group, so we are not behind the curve regarding recent announcements about learning disabilities.”
Dr Whittestone said everyone in this group should be vaccinated by mid-March.
Asked about concerns over side effects of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine compared with BioNTech/Pfizer’s, he said: “Locally our vigilance shows us there is no significant difference between the two.
“The most common side-effect is a painful arm the next day, and there are one in ten people who have a low-grade fever the next day and are required to take some paracetamol or similar drug to control that.
“But our local reporting shows no difference between the two and in fact shows a very, very low incidence of moderate to severe side effects.”
The meeting on Thursday, February 25, heard the vaccination programme started from scratch on December 8, 2020 and had been an “extraordinary achievement”.
Nightingale Hospital Bristol chief operating officer Claire Thompson told councillors: “The plan is to vaccinate all adults.
People across the region have been receiving their vaccines. Photo: PA
“The date is not specific but it has been circulated as the end of the summer, and that is what we are aiming for. We will do it as quickly as we possibly can.”
Bristol director of public health Christina Gray said: “What is almost certain, unless the virus changes dramatically, is that the background rate of infection will reduce considerably over the summer as it did last year.
“There does seem to be a very clear seasonal effect. So we can look forward to rates coming right down in the summer when the weather is better.
“The acid test will be what happens when we move out of summer into autumn and winter again. The other thing that is probably certain in all of this is that we always have winter pressures, we will have winter pressures with Covid.
“The question is how much Covid pressure will there be on the system next winter, and there are worst and best-case scenarios with that depending on how the vaccine programme goes.”
Adam Postans is a local democracy reporter for Bristol.
Main photo: NHS South West Twitter
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