This year’s flu and Covid vaccination programme starts on 5th September and will run until December.
This year’s flu and Covid vaccination programme starts on 5th September and will run until December. It will include both seasonal flu vaccinations and Covid boosters for specific groups of people in the population. A range of settings will be used to deliver the programme to thousands of Shetland residents, including the Gilbertson Park Games Hall as last year.
This year the following groups will be offered a flu vaccine:
- care home residents
- health and social care workers
- all those in clinical risk groups for flu from age of 6 months
- children from age of 2 up to the final year of secondary school
- pregnant women
- unpaid carers aged 16 and over
- household contacts of people who have a very weakened immune system
- teachers and some other school staff
- all adults from age of 50
And these groups will be offered a Covid booster:
- care home residents
- frontline health and social care workers
- all those in clinical risk groups for Covid from age of 5 years
- pregnant women
- unpaid carers aged 16 and over
- household contacts of people who have a very weakened immune system
- all adults from age of 50
The programme will be prioritised so that those at highest risk for Covid and flu will
be invited first – starting with care home residents, older people and health and
social care staff, and then other groups will be called later in the programme. All
appointments will be organised locally by phone or letter, or an invite to drop in
clinics. For those who are eligible for both flu and Covid vaccines, wherever possible
these will be administered at the same time.
The flu vaccination programme for children will run in parallel from September to
December, with pre-school children being vaccinated in GP practices and school
aged children in school. Consent forms for school aged children will start being given
out when the schools go back this week. Parents of pre-school children will receive a
national letter and should then contact their child’s GP practice if they want them to
have the flu vaccine.
As in previous years there will be different types of flu vaccine for those aged 65 and
over; adults aged 18 to 65; and those under 18. All the vaccines are effective
against four different strains of flu including H1N1 or ‘swine’ flu. There are egg free
vaccines for those who are allergic. As in previous years, children and young people
under 18 will receive the nasal flu vaccine spray. Those who cannot have this for
clinical reasons will be offered a flu vaccine injection.
There may be some changes to the Covid vaccines being offered for boosters this
year as new vaccines are being developed and approved. Nearly everyone in
Scotland who wants a booster will receive an mRNA vaccine as last year (e.g. a
Pfizer or Moderna vaccine) and there will be an alternative for the small number of
people who cannot have those for clinical reasons. Further information on the
vaccines to be allocated to Shetland is awaited and will be communicated when
available.
Dr Laidlaw, Interim Director of Public Health, said: “The autumn/winter vaccination
programme for flu and Covid will again be very complex this year, involving giving
over 20,000 vaccines in Shetland in just three months. We continue to work in
partnership with Shetland Islands Council to use the Gilbertson Park Games Hall as
a vaccination centre, and we will also run clinics in some GP practices and on the
outer isles. We will be scheduling appointments locally and not using national
appointment letters, nor the online portal for self-booking, so please do not try to use
that. We will be inviting people according to national priority groups so please be
patient. All those who are eligible will receive a phone call or a letter in due course
about booking their appointment or attending a drop in. Health and social care staff
will be contacted by the Occupational Health Team, and school children will received
a consent form through school.
“Over the past two years we have achieved very high rates of Covid and flu
vaccination across the Shetland population, and whilst the vaccines do not prevent
all spread of the viruses, they have helped to reduce the risk of serious illness and
prevent deaths, especially amongst the most vulnerable in our community. All the
services involved in delivering this complex programme are working hard to ensure it
can run as smoothly as possible and to achieve high uptake rates again.”
Further information on the vaccination programme will be available on NHS Inform
http://www.nhsinform.scot/winter-vaccines and there will be regular updates on NHS
Shetland’s social media feeds and website.