Over 320,000 Covid vaccine doses in Merseyside and Cheshire

Merseyside and Cheshire is continuing to make rapid Coronavirus vaccination progress, with over 80% of residents aged 80 or above having now received their fist jab. Latest figures published by NHS England show that up to January 24, a total of 292,278 first dose jabs were delivered across the two counties, plus a further 27,828 quantities of the second booster dose. This means that over 320,000 jabs have been administered in total across Merseyside and Cheshire since December 8, 2020 – and area that has an estimated population of 2,040,921.

Patients include 100-year-old Irene Atkinson from Prenton, who received her first jab at home on January 21, thanks to staff from Holmlands Medical Centre. 100-year-old Irene Atkinson receives her first coronavirus vaccine jab. Photo: Holmlands Medical Centre Irene, who reached her century last August, moved to Wirral from Harrogate when she was five and has made it her home ever since.

At 21 she joined the British Army and was tasked with driving trucks in the second world war. Irene is no stranger to pandemics, having survived the Asian flu of the 1950s. She later married and had four children and still lives independently in the family home, enjoying a tin of rice pudding every day.

Irene is one of 540 patients to have been vaccinated so far by Holmlands Medical Centre, which has a practice population of 3,118 people. Senior Partner at the practice, Dr P Srivastava, praised the efforts of their local hub clinic, Birkenhead Medical Centre, which is being led by Dr Mantgani. Dr Srivastava said: “We congratulate our local hub clinic.They have not wasted any vaccinations ensuring people are booked in and have delivered a very organised service with the help of staff from many practices including Holmlands Medical Centre.”

The figures reported today include vaccinations administered in hospital hubs, local vaccination service sites (such as GP practices) and vaccination centres, with the Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) and Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs) of Merseyside and Cheshire presented as a combined figure.

The weekly data is supplied by the National Immunisation Management Service (NIMS), which is the System of Record for the NHS COVID-19 vaccination programme in England.

More than 870,000 vaccination jabs have been administered across the North West so far, with 808,260 first doses and 62,791 booster jabs.