Greenwich health and care staff will be among first to be vaccinated against Covid-19 when jab is available

By Lachlan Leeming, Local Democracy Reporter

Health and care staff in Greenwich will be among the first vaccinated when a successful coronavirus vaccine is signed off on, the authority’s leader has pledged, saying that work was already under way in preparation for a mass roll-out of the jab.

In a message to residents on Friday afternoon, council leader Dan Thorpe said he wanted to provide an update on work currently under way to prepare for a potential mass-vaccination campaign.

Cllr Thorpe said the “logistics of this (roll-out) are complicated and the task is huge”, but moved to assure residents “the council is working extremely hard to put these plans in place”.

He said a vaccine will be rolled out via GPs, in-home services, and mass vaccination centres, with the authority “investigating suitable sites so that when a vaccine is available, we will be ready to go”.

The Labour leader added the council had lobbied for health and care workers to be among the first in the borough to receive the vaccine, alongside vulnerable people.

“Access to the vaccine will be determined at a national level, but I’m delighted that after lobbying on your behalf, I have a clear commitment that the entire health and social care workforce in the Royal Borough of Greenwich will be eligible for the vaccine in one of the top priority groups. We will share more details of this when we can,” he said.

“The vaccine will be prioritised for our most vulnerable residents, including our health and care staff, with the roll-out dependent on approval by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

“I’m proud that our team has worked extraordinarily hard to support our care homes.”

Pictured top: The past week has heralded good news for vaccines