Opinion: ‘V Day is here - but Covid is not over yet...’

It was a long wait, but V Day arrived. The world’s first authorised Coronavirus vaccine was made available on Tuesday. Wonderfully, Peterborough City Hospital was able to vaccinate some local residents straight away, alongside its clinically vulnerable members of staff.

No other country has reached this point. I am so proud to see Peterborough City Hospital become a vaccine hub, leading the national effort to get the vaccination programme delivered and our lives back to normal.

Caroline Walker and Rob Hughes, the Chief Executive and Chairman of the hospital trust, took the time to personally brief me on their plans. The roll out to care homes and the most vulnerable has begun.

Seeing the pictures of local married couple, June and John, getting their jabs was an emotional moment. I understand why the Health Secretary was caught dabbing away a tear, when he heard what older residents had to say.

The isolation and loneliness that so many have felt over the past months is finally coming to a close. As our City Hospital said in its statement, V Day was “a momentous occasion”.

This is a world-leading achievement, made possible not by haste, but by the right deployment of resources. None of the regular procedures or steps for a vaccine authorisation have been missed.

All of the safety protocols have been followed.

We can have confidence and, more importantly, we can have hope.

This year has been horrible. This virus continues to be horrible, but Britain now has concrete reasons to expect next year to be so much better.

The vaccination programme has started for the first priority groups. You should be contacted automatically when it’s your turn, probably early in the new year, if you’re towards the top of this list:

1. Residents in a care home for older adults and their carers.

2. Frontline health and social care workers, alongside those 80 years of age and over.

3. All those 75 years of age and over.

4. Clinically ‘extremely vulnerable’ individuals, alongside all those 70 years of age and over.

5. All those 65 years of age and over.

6. Vulnerable individuals aged 16 years to 64 years who have underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk.

7. All those 60 years of age and over.

8. All those 55 years of age and over.

9. All those 50 years of age and over.

My mother won’t have too long to wait. My turn will come after the NHS has worked through the 9 groups above. Whenever we receive our ‘call up’, it’s hugely important that we do our bit by everyone and get vaccinated.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires two jabs to work, around a month apart, so it’s also vital to go back for the second one!

The events of this week mean so much to me. Amid the justified celebrations, not least over Christmas, 
the one thing we cannot afford is to drop our guard too soon.

It’s still a case of ‘Hands, Face, Space’. Another winter wave of cases is still likely. Even with good progress on the vaccination programme, restrictions might not ease for some time.

But thank you to all those in our NHS, who are working so hard – there is a light at the end of the tunnel and happy V Day to you all