Colchester Hospital gives more vaccines than ever in two days

The East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Colchester Hospital, ran its Big Vaccination Weekend to give coronavirus jabs to the over-80s and frontline workers.

The exact number of jabs administered at the weekend is still being collated.

However, the trust said it is in the process of vaccinating health and social care staff, as well as its own workers and staff from more than 130 organisations.

In Dovercourt, more than 1,200 people received their jabs at the Fryatt Hospital, in Main Road, at the weekend.

Vaccine - a patient getting the jab. Picture: ESNEFT 

The hospital opened as a vaccine centre to those aged over 80 and frontline staff on Saturday.

A total of 25 Community Voluntary Services volunteers supported the NHS to help vaccinate residents at the hospital.

Harwich and North Essex’s MP Sir Bernard Jenkin said there was a great sense of positivity in the air as people queued for their vaccine.

He said: “The whole process took about 30 to 40 minutes per person.

“There were lots of volunteers to meet and greet patients, and check up on them too.”

Constable Medical Practice in East Bergholt, which is now running as a vaccination hub, gave residents their jabs at the weekend too.

A statement from the practice said: “We have been vaccinating patients against Covid-19 using the Pfizer vaccine before they expire within 3.5 days of delivery.”

The surgery thanked its volunteers who worked “incredibly hard” to guide patients into parking spaces in the snow.

Cold - volunteers in the snow in East Bergholt 

“Without them this programme would not have been possible and we would like to thank them from the bottom of our hearts for all their selfless work and dedication,” it added.

So far nearly four million people have been vaccinated.

As of this week, vaccines will also be offered to the over-70s and the clinically extremely vulnerable as the Government expands the rollout.

Ten new vaccination hubs have also been opened while UK borders have been closed in al bid to keep out new strains of the virus.

About 140 jabs are being administered per minute across the country.

There are signs the vaccination programme and lockdown are starting to turn the tide.

The infection rate across Colchester dropped by more than a quarter in the space of a week.

The infection rate in the borough now sits at 631.7 cases per 100,000 people.

This is after 1,230 cases were confirmed in the seven days to January 13.

The borough’s infection rate has dropped from 883.4 cases per 100,000 people in the previous seven day period, a decrease of about 28 per cent.

Last week, Tendring had the ninth highest infection rate in England, but it is now 13th.

The infection rate in Tendring is now 919.8 cases per 100,000 people, down from 1,176.3 a week before.

There were 1,348 cases of Covid-19 in the district between January 6 and January 13.

Essex Partnership University Trust has been contacted for comment on the Colchester figures.