Covid vaccine arrival like Coca Cola lorry at Christmas

Julian German made the comment during his latest covid-19 briefing when he urged people to continue to follow the public health guidelines for the virus.

The council leader welcomed the announcement of the vaccine and that it could start to be administered as early as next week in Cornwall.

He said: “Cornwall Council will of course offer support to our NHS colleagues in the roll-out of the vaccine, and we hope to see it carried out as swiftly and as smoothly as possible. This is positive news and provides that light at the end of the tunnel that we have all been hoping for since the start of the crisis back in March.

“However, it does feel like the excitement of the Coca-Cola lorry at Christmas, yes Christmas and the vaccine are coming but just because we want it, it doesn’t mean we will be getting our vaccine present on Christmas Day.

“There are 800,000 doses, two doses needed for a vaccination, so 400,000 vaccinations. If the vaccine is distributed proportionally across the country, then we would receive around 3,500 vaccinations, we have 5,000 NHS staff in Cornwall, this is before we get to social care staff, carers and care home residents, so we may be excited but now is not the time to let our guard down.

“We do not yet know the proportionality of the distribution of the vaccine, we will have to wait to hear that.  It will be well into 2021 before lots of Cornish residents receive the vaccine.”

He added: “Cornwall currently does have lower than average case numbers but the need to follow the rules and stick to the public health guidelines is more vital than ever.

“If we take our eye off the ball now, and allow the case numbers to rise before the vaccine is rolled out, we will be putting our vulnerable residents at risk and we will put our economy at risk. Moving up a tier in the New Year as we head to the Easter holidays at the end of March will be disastrous for our economy, so please do remain cautious in all you do.”