STAFF at Brooklands Care Home in Dunmurry could be getting the Covid-19 vaccine “as early as next week”.
The news comes after the rollout of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab began on Tuesday morning with the vaccination of a nurse in the Royal Victoria Hospital.
Health Minister Robin Swann has warned that distribution of the vaccine will be a massive logistical challenge – particularly in care homes, which will require 12,000 doses – but he said the process will begin soon.
After care homes, it will be the turn of everyone who is aged 80 and over and mobile, as well as frontline health and social care workers. Those aged 70 and over and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable are next in line.
Each person will receive two doses, three weeks apart. A person will only become fully protected four weeks after the initial dose. That means vaccinators will have received just one jab when they start vaccinating.
Patricia Brown, from Brooklands Care Home in Dunmurry, said staff were “excited” and “optimistic” about receiving the vaccine.
“We have been told we could be getting it as early as next week,” she said. “We have gone through the worst of Covid in the care home but we are still feeling the long-term effects of it.
“The staff are very optimistic and excited. We all want to move on and have a bit of normality in the home. It is awful the way we are living. It breaks my heart when families can’t get in to see their loved ones.
“Staff are also stressed about bringing Covid back into the home. We have been Covid-free for six months now. We are also worried about bringing it back to our own families.”
