Wigan's top doctors call for patience and caution as first vaccine roll-out begins

The borough’s health experts have urged residents to keep following Covid-19 restrictions in the coming months as the first approved vaccine begins to roll out.

Doses of the Pfizer vaccine began arriving at hospitals across the UK this week following its Government approval.

The green light was given after extensive tests found it to be 95 per cent effective in fighting the virus, and the announcement was made amid falling infection rates across the country, particularly in Wigan where weekly cases have fallen from more than 2,000 in a week to around 700 in the space of a month.

In Wigan, the most vulnerable residents will begin receiving the vaccine from December 14.

An army of volunteers are being lined up to administer the vaccines at several sites across the borough which have been provisionally earmarked for use as vaccination centres - though health bosses were not yet ready to disclose the locations.

But although there is “light at the end of the tunnel,” doctors have today warned that it will be many months before the majority of the population will receive both required injections, and that the public should still be exercising caution while the mass vaccination takes place.

Dr Sanjay Arya, a consultant cardiologist and medical director at WWL (Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh) NHS Trust, has been overseeing the Trust’s Covid-19 response since the outbreak in March.

He said: “Our Wigan population have been so patient and so tolerant over the last 10 months.

“While a vaccine is around the corner, let’s be a little bit more patient and tolerant, and as soon as the population is vaccinated, we hope life will slowly return to normal.

“But let’s not rush, because there are two doses of the vaccine, three weeks apart.

“It takes time to develop that immunity. You don’t have immunity the following morning, it takes weeks.

“So even if you get vaccinated in December or January, it would not be until February or March that you are safe enough.

“So please be patient, be tolerant, as you have been, and we will conquer this virus. [We] are confident that next year will be a better year for all of us.

“Let’s celebrate Christmas, but also remember those who have sadly lost their lives and dedicate this Christmas to those people from Wigan, and across the country.”

Dr Tim Dalton, chair of Wigan borough’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), echoed Dr Arya’s comments.

He urged people to take caution when visiting relatives over Christmas, to minimise the risk of spreading the virus.

“We need to keep our vigilance up,” he said.

“We want to avoid tragedies over Christmas.

“Christmas is important, family is important, but remember the rules - they are also important.”

Dr Dalton also reassured residents that most medical services would still operate as normal over the festive period. He said: “This year has been such an unusual and bizarre year.

“The NHS will be open over the Christmas period, however routine care will not be available over the Christmas weekend.

“If you are poorly, out-of-hours services will be running, pharmacy services will be running and 111 will be running.

“Make sure you’ve got basic medicines in at home, paracetamol, plasters, make sure you order any medications you need a few days before Christmas.

“There’s no need to order weeks in advance and there’s no need to stockpile medicines, because all the pharmacies and doctors will be able to supply your medicines.

“The public have been really good at following the guidance. We absolutely recognise that it often changes and it’s confusing, but our public are really good at remembering the basic messages of washing your hands, wearing a face mask when necessary, and keeping your distance apart from each other.

“It’s those basic things that are making a difference to our Covid infection rates, which are coming down at a quicker rate in this borough than other parts of Greater Manchester, and that is the thing that might help us possibly go from Tier 3 to a lower tier.

“Clearly, that is a Government decision, but if our citizens do all they can, it will then put the evidence in front of the politicians to make those decisions.”

Addressing the vaccine roll out, Dr Arya said: “The plan is to vaccinate the entire population of our borough, starting with the hospital staff because that’s where the sickest and most serious patients are.

“So our frontline staff, staff in the Intensive Care Unit, A&E staff, anywhere there is direct contact with Covid patients. This includes all staff working in these areas, not just doctors and nurses but also porters, therapists, any staff working in these areas.”

Professor Kate Ardern, Director of Public Health at Wigan Council, praised Wiganers’ efforts in adhering to the restrictions, but said there was still more to be done to help bring infection rates down.

She said: “We are well on the downward curve of the second wave. However, our colleagues in Leicester went into lockdown in July with a rate of 135, so we are still above that, and still above the national average.

“There’s absolutely no room for complacency, because we need to get this down even more, particularly if we are coming into five days of easing of restrictions over Christmas.”

“It’s a positive picture in terms of rates coming down, but there’s a note of caution from me, that we mustn’t let up in our efforts around hand hygiene, keeping everything you touch as clean as possible, wearing face coverings when out.“

Prof Ardern added: “It’s hugely positive news that we’ve got the Pfizer vaccine about to roll out from December 14.

“We’ve put in place some excellent practical implementation plans for that.

“The group has been working tirelessly on how we might implement the vaccination programme within the borough, and we’ve had a lot of lessons from this year’s flu vaccine programme, where we’ve successfully organised mass vaccination sessions.

“We’re not going to be able to do mass vaccinations for the wider population, people under the age of 50, until spring.

“So it’s really important that over the next two to three months, that we keep up with the public health measures until we’ve got the ability to roll out the vaccine more widely.

“There is some light at the end of the tunnel, but we’ve got a little way to go to get there and we mustn’t relax too much over the next two to three months.”

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