CARE HOMES ‘COVID-FREE BY FEBRUARY'

‘The roll-out will be much faster’

- Tony Whitfield

ALL care home residents could be vaccinated by February if the Oxford jab is given the go-ahead before the New Year, doctors’ leaders said.

The medicines regulator MHRA is set to approve the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine on either December 28 or 29, it has been reported.

The Royal College of GPs said if that happens, it would speed up the programme to protect the most vulnerable from the virus.

Although not as effective as the current Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, it is much cheaper and easier to roll out.

Yesterday the Prime Minister said 350,000 people have so far had the Pfizer vaccine.

The Royal College of GPs chairman Professor Martin Marshall said that approval of the Oxford jab would greatly increase the speed of the roll-out. He told Radio 4’s Today

programme yesterday: “At the moment we are dealing with this Pfizer vaccine, which is difficult.

“On the assumption that we are going to get approval for the AstraZeneca vaccine – which is much more familiar because it is much more like the flu vaccination – we will be able to roll-out at a much faster pace.

“Certainly over the next few weeks and months we expect all care homes to be covered.”