PEMBROKESHIRE saw its first coronavirus vaccination centre for care home workers, health service staff and social care staff opened on Monday, January 18, in Haverfordwest.

The exact location has not been disclosed, but staff will be provided with the address when they book their appointment.

For the general public, a Haverfordwest mass vaccination centre is expected to open in the coming weeks.

Hywel Dda, in its weekly update, said: “Over the past seven days, the roll out of the biggest mass vaccination programme in our history made significant progress with the delivery of vaccines to GP practices across the three counties.

“Since the start of the vaccination programme, 18,602 vaccines have been given. A total of 6,109 vaccinations were delivered between Monday January 10 and Sunday January 17, up from 4,676 delivered in the seven days previous.

“Last week, GP practices have been able to share vaccine supplies received to ensure care home residents were vaccinated as quickly as possible. Up to Sunday 17 January, 25.5 per cent of care home residents have received their first dose.

“We are pleased to be able to confirm that starting this week, all GP practices across the three counties will receive a supply of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and as part of our vaccination roll out programme, we will continue to work with GP practices and community pharmacies to ensure the vaccine is available for patients to access easily and equitably.

“An additional vaccination centre for care home workers, health service staff and social care staff opens today in Haverfordwest and will continue for these staff groups at our centres in Cardigan and Carmarthen.”

It added: “For the public, additional mass vaccination centres will open in Aberystwyth, Haverfordwest and Llanelli in the coming weeks. Please be assured that vaccinations will continue at a pace through GP practices who are best placed to provide this service locally.”

A TOTAL of 18,602 vaccinations have been delivered up to Sunday, January 17, across the Hywel Dda health region.

In its weekly update, the health authority said 6,109 vaccinations had been administered in the last seven days (Monday to Sunday, January 11-17).

The total uptake by priority group was: Care home residents – 692 (25.5 per cent); care home worker – 1,341 (38.4 per cent); aged 80 years and over – 2,001 (8.8 per cent); healthcare workers – 8,810 (42 per cent); social care workers – 785 (8.1 per cent).

Total vaccinations per county: Carmarthenshire 8,730 (4.6 per cent); Ceredigion 2,764 (3.8 per cent); Pembrokeshire 5,919 (4.7 per cent).

There were also 1,189 vaccinations of staff working in but living outside the three counties.

Public Health Wales says the vaccine will be offered to those who are most at risk first. Eventually every adult will be offered the vaccine.

The groups to be prioritised to receive a Covid-19 vaccine first, are decided by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) at a UK level.

This is based on knowledge around who is most at risk from Covid-19.

Priority list:

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

2 Those 80 and over and frontline health and social care workers

3 Those 75 and over

4 Those 70 and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals

5 Those 65 and over

l 6 Those aged 16-64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk

7 Those 60 and over

8 Those 55 and over

9 Those 50 and over

Hywel Dda has appealed to the public not to contact GPs, pharmacies or the health board to ask when you will receive the vaccine.

You will be contacted when it is your turn. People will be invited to receive the vaccine in order of priority, so please be patient.

On the latest, January 18 figures, coronavirus cases in the Hywel Dda University Health board area rose by 878 in a week, up to 13,463 cases.

Pembrokeshire alone saw an additional 195 cases in a week, up now to 2,749.

The health board area saw an additional 34 deaths from January 11-18, up to 318.