Western Trust administers 250k coronavirus vaccines

A MILESTONE of 250,000 Covid-19 vaccination doses have been administered by the Western Health and Social Care Trust.  

In the last two weeks alone, 2,000 doses administered to care home staff and residents has helped the Trust to achieve the quarter of a million dose figure since the programme began in December 2020.

The programme has been delivered via a number of different phases, from the initial care home vaccinations, to the mass vaccination centres, and the mobile pop-up clinics, as well as the booster programme for care homes, frontline staff, and the clinically vulnerable.

Teresa Molloy, the Western Trust’s director of performance, is quick to pay tribute all of the personnel involved.

“We have just passed a very significant milestone in the vaccination programme which the Western Trust has been running for the past 12 months,” she said. “We have delivered just over 250,000 doses, which is a quite remarkable achievement, and I would like to thank the wide range of people who have contributed to the success of our programme.

“There are too many to name, but they include our vaccinators, our pharmacists, our cleaners, porters our estates staff – and all of the partners who we have worked with in our mass vaccination centres, and in our clinics.”

Ms Molloy added, “Vaccination remains the best way for us to protect ourselves and others, and I would urge all those who are eligible to receive a vaccine, or a booster vaccine, to do so.”

The care home booster programme has seen two mobile vaccination teams administer over 2,000 booster jabs to residents and staff in over 30 homes in just two weeks.

All 60 care homes in the Western Trust area are expected to have received their booster doses before the end of October, with a final figure of more than 3,000 jabs anticipated.

At present, the Western Trust are also rolling out the booster jabs to frontline staff and those members of the public deemed as clinically vulnerable through hubs in the Omagh, Altnagelvin, and SWAH hospital sites.

With the ‘Big Jab Weekend 2’ still to come this weekend, an event which will see the previous mass vaccination centre at Omagh Leisure Complex reopen its doors for second doses, it continues to be an extremely busy time for the large team of people behind the Trust’s vaccination efforts.