Covid-19 vaccine prep to start from December – reports
Doctors will be able to administer Covid-19 vaccines from the beginning of December, according to medical trade publication Pulse.
There are two vaccines that are being prepared, with one requiring two shots and needing to be kept at minus 70 degrees.
GP practices and primary care networks will be asked to prepare to give the vaccine to over 85s and front line workers from the start of December, Pulse reports.
Teams will also deliver the vaccine to care homes and at-scale delivery centres.
It was confirmed to Pulse that GPs and the whole of the NHS are going to be put on standby to start vaccinating over-85s and frontline workers from early December.
It is unclear which vaccines will be administered. Pulse reports Pfizer’s vaccine in development has to be kept at minus 70 degrees, while the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine was shown to be more effective when administered in two doses.
A new Direct Enhanced Service (DES) is set to be announced as soon as next week for practices and primary care networks to start administering the vaccines.
A DES is an extension to a GPs contract that allows them to provide a wider range of services to patients that are not provided under usual contracts.
According to Pulse there is no indication as to the efficacy of any vaccine, and the chief scientific officer Sir Patrick Vallance has been keen to play down the chances of an effective vaccine.