Covid-19 vaccination feature at Sidley Medical Practice. Pic Justin Lycett.

Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine SUS-210130-115651001Covid-19 vaccination feature at Sidley Medical Practice. Pic Justin Lycett.

Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine SUS-210130-115651001
Covid-19 vaccination feature at Sidley Medical Practice. Pic Justin Lycett. Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine SUS-210130-115651001

How many people have been vaccinated in Hastings, Bexhill and rural Rother?

The vaccine programmes in Hastings, Bexhill and rural Rother are making good progress, with all three centres hoping to complete vaccinations for the top four priority groups by the end of the week.

In Hastings, the Hastings Centre has vaccinated 12,444 people and is currently providing up to 950 vaccines per day as it continues to focus on the remaining over 70s and clinically extremely vulnerable.

The team is working through a list of housebound patients in the community and these patients will be contacted in the coming weeks about receiving a jab at home.

The centre said it hopes to invite over 65s for their vaccines by the end of this week.

Anyone aged over 70 or defined as clinically vulnerable should contact their GP surgery. All the contact details can be found here.

In rural Rother, which includes Rye and Battle, 87 per cent of patients over the age of 85 have received their first jabs at the Etchingham Village Hall.

In Bexhill, the over-65s could start receiving their jabs as early as next week, while the eldest and most vulnerable residents are due to start receiving their second doses by the middle of next month.

As on Monday night (February 8), a total of 12,200 people living in Bexhill had received their vaccines, according to Dr Binodh C Bhaskaran, the clinical director of the Bexhill Primary Care Network which is responsible for the area’s vaccine rollout.

Those who have received their first jabs include the clinically vulnerable, the over-70s, care home residents and staff and housebound patients.

Dr Bhaskaran said he was confident that all residents within those top four categories would be offered their first dose by Friday – ahead of the government’s target of February 15.

They are then expected to start receiving their second doses in the middle of March, roughly 12 weeks after the first vaccines were administered in Bexhill on December 29, 2020. Some other parts of the country are due to start this process at the beginning of March after rolling out their first vaccines at the start of December.

In Bexhill, there are approximately 100 housebound residents awaiting their first jabs – 350 have already received theirs – which should be completed by the end of this week.

The remaining care home residents – less than five per cent – were vaccinated by Wednesday afternoon (February 10), Dr Bhaskaran said.

He added the primary care network – which is made up of the four GP practices in Bexhill – was administering 500 vaccines per day. This week, that would take the total of vaccines administered in Bexhill to more than 14,000. Dr Bhaskaran previously said there were roughly 15,000 Bexhill residents within the top four priority groups, but a small number have refused their first dose or could not receive it due to health concerns, while some others have received their vaccine in Brighton or Eastbourne.

Bexhill’s Covid-19 vaccine programme is being carried out at the Sidley Medical Practice and is administering jabs to all patients registered with Collington Surgery, Little Common Surgery, Pebsham Surgery; and Sidley Medical Practice.

All over-70s in Hastings, Bexhill or other parts of Rother who have not yet received their first dose of the vaccine have been advised to contact their GP surgery.

Rural Rother

The Northiam and Broad Oak Surgery, providing an update on vaccines at the Etchingham Village Hall, said 92 per cent of 80 to 85-year-olds, 88 per cent of 75 to 80-year-olds and 82 per cent of 70 to 75-year-olds have also received their first dose.

The programme to vaccinate all housebound patients has also been completed, they said.

Those aged over 70 who have not yet received a jab have been told to book an appointment at one of the larger vaccination centres by calling 119.

The next group to received vaccines at Etchingham will be those aged between 65 and 69. Northiam and Broad Oak said these appointments cannot yet be booked but they expect the go-ahead from NHS England in the next few days. Patients will then be contacted to book their appointments.

Cases

The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Hastings and Rother have dropped by a third in a week, according to the latest figures. Between January 24 and January 31, there were 300 cases in Hastings and 221 in Rother, but this had dropped to 201 and 156 respectively between February 1 and February 7, the figures showed.