With the latest data showing that around 30% of care-home residents and 20% of over-80s had not received a top-up jab by 7 November, the vaccination programme is to focus on pushing close to the 100% coverage achieved among these groups for first and second doses.
Operations lead Ross Barnes said yesterday that around 1,500 booster doses had been delivered via mobile units so far, but that some care-home residents had missed out, either because they had received their second dose within the past six months, or because they were unwell at the time their home was visited.
Mr Barnes said mobile units would be making follow-up visits to care homes over the coming weeks and would, from next week, start visiting private residences.
‘Our progress has been slower than during earlier stages of the programme; this is a result of delivering flu vaccines from the same unit, and also because the mass-vaccination centre at Fort Regent is operating at high levels of up to 500 appointments per day at the same time,’ he said.
After some Islanders took to social media to ask why those who had previously been vaccinated at a mobile unit could not get their booster doses at Fort Regent, Mr Barnes confirmed that making an appointment at the Fort was an option for those who preferred not to wait for their home visit.
The government also hopes to drive up immunisation coverage among schoolchildren, with 52% of 16- and 17-year-olds having received a vaccine, along with 27% of those aged 12 to 15.
Visits to schools to deliver Covid jabs have been considered, but programme lead Becky Sherrington said there had been no decision on this move yet, with discussions between government departments continuing.
In total, 176,000 doses of vaccine have been administered so far in Jersey, including 22,000 booster shots.
The latest data for testing has also been shared and shows that 23,000 Islanders had registered to receive lateral-flow tests for use at home.
Rachel Williams, director of testing and tracing, urged more Islanders to register online for their free testing kits, and for those who were registered to continue using them, especially before social visits or seeing vulnerable friends or relatives, and to report the results.
PCR testing is now being carried out at a new testing facility at the General Hospital. Ms Williams confirmed that this would have the same capacity as the Open Cell unit at Jersey Aero Club, which will be decommissioned next month, and deliver test results within the same time-frame, which has previously involved average waits of about 12 hours.
