THE government has told people aged 70 and over in England to contact the NHS and book a vaccine appointment – but people in Newbury are being asked to wait.
They have been asked to wait until 9am on Thursday, February 11, before phoning to book a slot at the vaccination centre at Newbury Racecourse.
Berkshire West Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which runs the Newbury Racecourse vaccination centre, said it is still in the process of contacting people and booking them in for appointments.
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Appointments for that centre cannot be booked on the national booking system so people are being asked to phone their GP.
People across the country had been asked to wait until they were contacted by the NHS and offered an appointment.
But earlier this week health secretary Matt Hancock said anyone aged 70 and over in England who is still waiting for a vaccine should try and book an appointment online or phone the NHS on 119.
He said the government “wants to be certain” that everyone in the top four priority groups has been offered at least one dose of a vaccine by February 15.
Berkshire West CCG says staff are on track to meet the government’s target.
The CCG began vaccinating people with the Pfizer-BioNTech jab on December 14. It then ramped up its vaccination programme after receiving thousands of doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca at the beginning of January.
So far, it has offered jabs to front-line health and social care workers, care home workers, and residents and the over 80s.
It began vaccinating the over 75s in West Berkshire on Monday, February 1, at the vaccination centre at Newbury Racecourse and GP practices across the district.
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If the Newbury Racecourse centre was operating at full capacity, staff would be able to vaccinate up to 2,250 people a day.
However, they do not have enough doses of the vaccine to operate at full capacity yet.
More than 12 million people in the UK have been offered a first dose of a vaccine so far and over 512,000 have received their second.
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