Hundreds of people across Swindon will receive the coronavirus vaccine at The Steam Museum this week.
The Rodbourne venue has been transformed into a local vaccination services, in which groups of GP practices worked together to provide the vaccine to patients over the age of 80.
More than 900 people at each site are expected to have been given the recentlyapproved Covid-19 vaccination by the end of this week.
All patients will have to return for the second dose of the vaccine in approximately
three weeks.
At this stage in the vaccination programme, only those people aged 80 and over, as
well as some frontline health and care staff, will be invited to receive the vaccine.
The community vaccinations come just a week after the Great Western Hospital in
Swindon became the first local venue to offer the vaccine to staff and patients.
Gill May, Director of Nursing and Quality, said: “Never before has there been a
vaccination programme as ambitious as this, and it really is humbling to have been
able to see everything come together so quickly and efficiently.
“These community sites are among the first of their kind, and I know that NHS teams in other areas of the country will be looking to us as they arrange their own
vaccination programmes.
“We all know there is a long way to go until we can confidently say that coronavirus
is no longer a threat, but we’ve taken the first steps, and it’s important to remember
that even the most intimidating of journeys start with that first step forward.”
The Steam Museum is one of four community vaccination sites to go live in Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire, with other venues elsewhere in the region
expected to follow suit in the coming weeks.
Local people are reminded not to attend any of the community vaccination sites, nor
their local hospitals or GP practices, without having been invited to do so.
