COVID-19 Vaccine Information

The NHS is currently offering the COVID-19 vaccine to people most at risk. In England, the COVID-19 vaccine is being offered in some hospitals and pharmacies, at local centres run by GPs and at larger vaccination centres. More centres are opening all the time.

You can book your COVID-19 vaccine if:

• you’re aged 18 or over
• you’re at high risk from COVID-19 (clinically extremely vulnerable)
• you have a condition that puts you at higher risk (clinically vulnerable)
• you have a learning disability
• you’re a frontline health or social care worker
• you get a Carer’s Allowance, get support following an assessment by your local authority or your GP record shows you’re a carer

You’ll be contacted by the NHS when you’re eligible.

If you’re an eligible unpaid carer but you cannot book an appointment, speak to your GP surgery.

Find out more about who can get the COVID-19 vaccine.

The order in which people will be offered the vaccine is based on advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

Read the latest JCVI advice on priority groups for the COVID-19 vaccination on GOV.UK

You should wait to be contacted. If you already have a second dose appointment that is soon, we would recommend keeping that appointment.

The NHS is working hard to ensure people in cohorts 1-9 can book an earlier appointment, at eight
weeks or as soon as possible after that. If you want to book an earlier appointment, you
should.

1. Go to www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination and click on book or manage your COVID-19
   vaccination.
2. On the main booking page, click on manage my appointments.
3. Enter your personal details and then the booking reference for your existing second dose
   appointment. This can be found in your text or email confirmation of your booking if you
   provided your contact details.
4. When you are in your appointment page, in order to book an earlier appointment, you will first
   need to cancel your existing appointment by clicking on cancel appointment. NOTE: It is not
   currently possible to see what other appointments are available until you have cancelled your
   existing appointment.
5. When you have cancelled your appointment you can book a new appointment. Any new
   appointments offered to you will be in line with the JCVI and government guidance. I.e. they will
   be eight weeks after your first dose appointment or as soon as possible after that.

You can also ring 119. Please note that call handlers in 119 use the same system to book appointments as is available on www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination so the call handler will need to cancel the existing appointment before seeing what time, date and location options are available for booking an earlier appointment.

If you already have an appointment over the coming weeks, whether for your first or second dose, this remains in place and it is really important that you attend as planned. The first dose of both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine offer good levels of protection, but to get maximum protection everyone will need to get a second dose, so we are urging people to come back when they are contacted or if they have an appointment booked. 

People are being personally invited to get their vaccine in priority groups. You will receive an invitation to come forward either by phone, text, through a letter from your GP practice or the national booking system.

Northumberland’s GP practices are working together in Primary Care Networks to vaccinate patients, so you might not be contacted by your usual practice, and you might need to go to a different location for the vaccination itself – you will be told where to attend when you are invited. When you have had your vaccination you will be told when you will need to go back for your second dose.

People should turn up at their appointment time, not earlier, and depending on the brand of vaccination you receive, you may need to wait at the practice for 15 minutes after being give the vaccine to ensure you do not have any adverse reaction.

Some European countries have temporarily paused the use of the vaccine as a precautionary measure, following reports of blood clots in a small number of people who had recently had the vaccine.

However, there is no evidence that the blood clots have been caused by the vaccine and the UK regulator, the Medicines Health Regulatory Authority, has said that they are confident the vaccine is safe. This is supported by both the European Medicines Agency (the European regulator for medicines and vaccines) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), who have said the vaccine should is safe and should continue be given.

There were 30 reports of clots among almost five million people given the vaccine across Europe but this is actually less than the number that would be expected to happen naturally. Following the concerns regarding blood clots, AstraZeneca has conducted a review of all safety data, which has shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots. This covered more than 17 million people vaccinated in the UK and European Union.

The UK is further ahead its vaccination programme than any other country in the world and so far over 20 million people in England have been vaccinated. It is very important that people still have their COVID-19 vaccine when asked to do so. This is the only protection available against the serious illness caused by COVID-19, which has sadly led to the death of millions of people around the world, and people will continue to be at risk from the disease if they do not take up the offer of a vaccine.

Elizabeth Morgan, Northumberland’s Director of Public Health and lead Director of Public Health for the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme in the North East said:

“There have been 37 reports of potentially serious blood clots out of the 17 million doses given to people across the EU – that’s actually a lower number of incidents than you’d expect to see in the population.  The UK regulator (the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency), the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (the European regulator for medicines and vaccines) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have all said there is no evidence that the vaccine causes blood clots and that they are confident the vaccine is safe. With that in mind, it’s difficult to understand why some EU countries have suspended its use.  What people probably don’t know is that there is evidence that if you get COVID-19, you’re at higher risk of developing blood clots during infection, and those that do have an increased risk of dying so personally, I’ll be choosing to have the vaccine when its offered.

“I want to reassure people that the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective and that all adverse effects are closely monitored through the same tried and tested process we use for other medicines.  While I understand people might be worried, this vaccine is the best way of protecting yourself and your family from this awful virus, and to help us all look forward to a brighter future. If you are offered vaccination in the coming days I’d strongly urge you to take it – it is safe and effective.”

Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine.pdf

The vaccines may not take place at your GP practice, but rather at a local vaccination centre (led by GPs practice nurses and community pharmacists). The vaccination is currently being rolled out from ten sites across Northumberland.  Please note that the vaccination centre you are asked to attend may not be the one closest to your home so make plans for how you will get to the centre when you are asked to attend, including plans for travel at different times of the day.

If you need help travelling to your allocated vaccination centre you will be asked this when making an appointment and your GP practice who will be able to provide you with details of how to arrange transport solutions.

The COVID-19 vaccine is given as an injection into your upper arm. It’s given as two doses. People will receive their second dose 12 weeks after the first. This means that many more people can now receive the first dose of the vaccine quicker.

To protect yourself and your family members from fraud and criminals, remember the following points:

• The vaccine is only available on the NHS for free to people in priority groups, and the NHS will contact you when it is your turn. Anyone offering a paid-for vaccine is committing a crime.
• The NHS will never ask you to press a button on your keypad or send a text to confirm you want the vaccine, and never ask for payment or for your bank details.
• At the moment we are also not making house calls to deliver or discuss the vaccine. Anyone offering this now is committing a crime.

If you receive a call you believe to be fraudulent, hang up. If you believe you have been the victim of fraud or identity theft you should report this directly to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040. Where the victim is vulnerable, and particularly if you are worried that someone has or might come to your house, report it to the Police online or by calling 101.

Front line health and social care workers are included as a priority group for vaccination.

The majority have been offered vaccination appointments via their employer – if you are employed please check with your manager about how to have your vaccine.

There is also a group of front line workers who are self employed such as personal assistants working under personal health budgets, or chiropodists, physios etc.

If you fall into a self employed category you can register for a vaccination.

Please note that you will need to provide some identification (such as a letter, ID badge) to show you are a front line worker and ID checks are in place at vaccination sites.

You can book at one of the large vaccination centres at Newcastle’s Centre for Life or the Nightingale Sunderland. Or you can provide your contact details and we will contact you with a local vaccination service.

Further information is available here.