Last Updated 13 August 2021
If you are invited to attend a Mass Vaccination Centre and CAN attend then please DO attend as this will help us vaccinate as many as possible as quickly as possible.
Mass vaccination centres are a critical part of the vaccination model in the UK, including here in Powys.
They help us to ensure that we can vaccinate as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. This in turn has meant that the vaccination programme in Powys has been amongst the fastest in the UK.
At the outset of the vaccination programme a key reason for this was the delivery of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. This vaccine has had very stringent requirements for storage, transport and supply. In the first eight months of the vaccination programme launched in December 2020 it arrived with us in trays of around 1000 doses which could not be split, and it needs to be stored at very cold temperatures. When we bring it to a usable temperature it now needs to be used within four weeks (although until Summer 2021 it needed to be used within four days!).
The specific requirements of Pfizer BioNTech meant that our mass vaccination centres needed to be located where they could draw on a very large catchment – to deliver those 1000 vaccination doses in a short space of time. This has meant that we also need to make best use of these centres to deliver vaccination for as many people as possible as quickly as possible using other vaccine types.
The centres themselves also need to provide an environment that offers safe storage of the vaccine to avoid waste. They must also ensure social distancing for everyone involved – not just when you receive the vaccination, but also to wait safely after the vaccine to check there is no reaction. This reduces the options for where and how these centres are established.
Here in Powys we were able to quickly set up three vaccination centres in the county - Bronllys, Builth Wells, and Newtown – each serving around 40,000 people in the south, mid and north of the county.
We are incredibly grateful for the hard work of our staff and partners to get three vaccination centres set up so quickly, providing guaranteed COVID-19 vaccination appointments for our residents as soon as possible. As a result, over 100,000 people have already been vaccinated through the PTHB vaccination programme, and we have already offered vaccination to everyone over the age of 16.
But Powys is very large and very sparsely populated, which means that delivering this vaccination programme is challenging for us and for our communities. Even with three mass vaccination centres, this still means that some residents have some distance to travel to get there.
We fully recognise this, which is why we will make sure that our approach is as flexible as possible.
On the one hand we do need as many people as possible to take up the invitation to a mass vaccination centre if they are able to do so. This will be best way to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible.
But we do absolutely recognise that travel and transport may be an issue for you, particularly in our large county. When you receive your invitation, our booking team can be contacted to discuss travel and transport options.
Rest assured that even if you are unable to contact the booking centre to cancel your appointment, you will still be re-contacted. We do kindly ask you to be patient and wait to be contacted about your alternative appointment.
Your mass vaccination centre appointment will be your quickest opportunity to get the vaccine, so we would encourage you to go ahead if you can.
If you are invited to attend a Mass Vaccination Centre and CAN attend then please DO attend as this will help us vaccinate as many as possible as quickly as possible.