A SENIOR partner at Clarence Medical Centre in Rhyl who has been a GP in the area for more than 20 years has given an insight into their Covid vaccination efforts.

Dr Simon Dobson said - up to January 17 - he and his team had vaccinated 17 homes in Rhyl, a total of 416 residents.

He added: "We have done this on behalf of the North Denbighshire GP cluster. We would like to express our thanks to the staff of the care homes for their help in making the process a success. We are also grateful for the pragmatism of the Central Area team of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) for facilitating the supply of vaccines to make it happen."

Dr Dobson said only six residents declined the vaccine. The declined vaccines were all used on residents and not a single dose was wasted.

"We have one small home of six patients to complete when we have our next delivery," Dr Dobson said.

"There is one remaining home which is recovering from a covid-19 outbreak which we will vaccinate shortly when the vaccination guidelines allow.

"All of my GP colleagues are eager to press on with our vaccination plans but are frustrated by the slow arrival of the initial batches of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines.

"We understand that these supplies will ramp up quickly in the next couple of weeks.

"We are confident that we can vaccinate at a pace to meet the current targets."

Dr Dobson said the medical centre is administrating the Oxford-AstraZenec vaccine.

"This is easier to handle in the community as it can be stored in a normal fridge," he said.

"We are concentrating our efforts on the first two government priority groups.

"GPs are used to mass vaccinations. We have 16,000 patients and every winter we give the flu jab to 4,000 at risk patients.

"We believe that the Covid -19 vaccine is the best way out of the pandemic and there is finally light at the end of the tunnel. All practices are excited about the prospect of vaccinating everyone who is eligible.

"I have had it myself and have full confidence in it and its safety. It protects me and the whole community that I come into contact with."

Dr Dobson said the centre has 850 patients aged over 80.

"We would hope to have them all vaccinated promptly," he said.

"Our staff have readily volunteered to work extended hours and weekends to make it happen. All practices teams are raring to go."

People who have received their vaccination should continue to observe the national guidelines to avoid the spread of Covid-19.

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As of Friday, January 15, 27,762 people in North Wales had received their first Covid-19 Vaccination

28 per cent of priority groups one and two have received their first vaccination dose

Between January 9 and 15, 15,271 people received their first vaccination across North Wales

As of Friday, January 15 8am, North Wales had delivered 22 per cent of the cumulative Wales total.

On January 19, Teresa Owen, executive director of Public Health, said: "In the past week, we administered the highest number of vaccinations of any Welsh Health Board, which equated to 22 per cent of the cumulative number of first dose vaccines administered in Wales. This compares to 11 per cent of the Welsh total two weeks ago.

"Our teams are working extremely hard to vaccinate as many people as possible using the supplies issued to us.

"We started this week having vaccinated over 30,000 people since the beginning of the programme. We are confident that we have the capacity and the operational plan in place to meet the first target. This requires more than 184,000 vaccines to be administered before February 14. The only limiting factor will be the access to vaccine supplies.

"As of last week over a quarter of both priority groups one and two (including those aged over 80) in North Wales have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. We aim for all people aged over 80 to have had their first dose of the vaccine by the end of next week.

"Both AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines now in use across the region. The ratio is approximately 1:4 AZ to Pfizer.

"All three Mass Vaccination Centres (MVCs) are now in use (Bangor, Llandudno and Deeside), in addition to three Hospital Vaccination Centres (HVCs) (Ysbyty Gwynedd, Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, Ysbyty Wrecsam Maelor). HVCs are working 12 hours a day, 3.5 days per week, while MVCs are working 12 hours a day, 6 days during week, commencing 19 January, then 7 days per week from 26 January.

"We have vaccinated nearly 50 per cent of staff in direct patient contact roles and currently have over 70 per cent of direct patient contact staff vaccinated or booked for their first dose by 29 January, and we expect this to increase based on experience over recent weeks."

Patients are asked to wait until they are invited for their vaccination by their GP / BCUHB.