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Nearly 6,000 islanders have had at least one dose of the covid-19 vaccination - but they're being warned that they shouldn't return to life as 'normal' until most islanders have had their jab.
2,009 islanders had received the both doses of the vaccine by 17 January, according to the latest vaccination statistics released by the Government.
44% of islanders over the age of 80 have now receive the first dose, with 516 having had the second dose as well.
Pictured: Nearly 6,000 islanders had received at least one dose of the vaccine by 17 January.
1,684 and 1,409 islanders in the 17 to 49-year-old and 50 to 64-year-old respectively have also had one jab with a further 520 in the 65 to 79-year-old category.
An average of 500 to 700 people are currently being vaccinated daily but there is capacity for that to increase to 1,000 once more vaccine doses become available.
Over 2,100 islanders got their jab last week with 700 receiving their second dose.
Work is currently underway to add those statistics to the covid statistics page on the Government's website.
Pictured: The vaccine statistics will soon be added to the Government's website.
Due to the limited supply of vaccines at the moment, there is currently no plan to administer doses outside of the centre based at Fort Regent, or on a private basis.
“At the moment, we have two available vaccines which have been approved by the MHRA so at the moment we have got limitation in the amount that we can do based on vaccine availability,” Becky Sherrington, the Head of Covid-19 Vaccination Delivery, said.
“We are able to increase that capacity if the vaccines become available, we have that capacity already built in within the system.
“We are also looking about what the next few months look like too, so if we need to scale the capacity even further what would that mean.”
Pictured: Fort Regent will remain the only vaccination centre until more vaccines become available.
Ms Sherrington, however, said “a range of options” have been considered to scale up the vaccination programme, based on the projections for vaccine availability.
“Once other vaccines come online, which is probably not going to be until the end of March, then we will look at what that looks like,” she said. “At the moment, those plans are being worked on. Once we’ve got those agreed, I’ll be able to share those with you.”
With more and more people being vaccinated, Ms Sherrington issued a reminder that islanders should still take a cautious approach in their daily life.
“We had feedback this week from a lady in her 80s, who phoned me at home to say, ‘I had a brilliant experience at the vaccine centre, but I just need to highlight that lots of my over 80 friends are now dropping their public health guidance’,” she said.
“It’s really important that until much more people across the population and also internationally are vaccinated that people continue to follow the public health advice, until we’re in a better position to know the impact of those locally and also internationally.”
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