HOPES rose last night that millions of grandparents will be vaccinated within weeks after the first Covid jabs arrived in Britain.
Lorries loaded with the vaccine travelled from Puurs, Belgium, to a warehouse in the north of England yesterday.
The “game-changing” jab from Pfizer/BioNTech will be distributed to 50 hospital hubs.
And officials are increasingly confident millions of elderly people — including those in care homes — will get it by Christmas.
Last night regulators indicated they will allow packs of 975 doses to be split so they can be taken to individual homes.
This would remove a major barrier to distribution.
Health chiefs have said current restrictions around the vaccine have created a “logistical nightmare”.
It must be transported at -70C, moved only four times and given from a tray of 975 vials that cannot be split.
‘GENUINE GAME CHANGES’
A typical care home has just a few dozen residents meaning hundreds of the vials costing around £15 each would be wasted.
A hospital boss said: “Most care homes are within reach of our local hospitals, so, if we can get to the point where this vaccine can be broken up I think we’re in a different position.
“The other thing to think about is, if and when the Oxford vaccine gets into play, it’s a different game as well — we’ll just move into a completely different gear.
“So, I think, we are on the edge of real genuine game changes.”
The Oxford/AstraZeneca jab — which is cheaper and easier to store — could be available in less than a week if it passes through the appraisal process as rapidly as Pfizer’s.
Regulator the MHRA began its final assessment of the Oxford jab a week after Pfizer’s — which was approved on Wednesday.
The UK has ordered 100million doses of the Oxford vaccine and 40million from Pfizer — with 800,000 arriving from its Belgian factory by the end of next week.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said care home residents and staff should be vaccinated first, followed by over-80s and NHS workers.
The hospital hubs will start vaccinating from Tuesday.
However, vaccines will then be taken to care homes if distributors can demonstrate to the MHRA over the next fortnight that they can split packs safely.
The Oxford vaccine could be available by then anyway.
Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer, said he “absolutely will” get the Pfizer jab into care homes if possible.
But he admitted the Oxford vaccine will be easier to deploy and hopefully available by Christmas.
In a blow to people receiving the injection, he revealed they will still have to follow social distancing rules and self-isolate if contacted by Test and Trace.
He said: “Until we are properly confident of how the vaccine works and properly confident that disease levels are dropping, even if you have had the vaccine, you are going to need to continue to follow all the rules that apply for a while longer.”
Prof Anthony Harnden, of the JCVI, asked care home residents and their families to show patience while the jab is rolled out.
He added: “We have got an exciting vaccine, we have got others that are in the pipeline and we fully expect the programme and our priority list to be rolled out in the very near future.”
Caroline Abrahams, from Age UK, said: “It’s great news that several effective vaccines are on their way, but we know that this first one has to be handled carefully and stored at an Arctic temperature, so to start with, at least, it’s more likely to be usable by hospitals than care homes.
“Hopefully, within a very short time every older person living in a care home, and many in their own homes too, will be offered the opportunity to be vaccinated.”
DP World, the owner of P&O Ferries, has offered to transport coronavirus vaccines to the UK free of charge.
A spokesman for the firm said: “We stand ready to support the Government in getting all the necessary vaccines into the UK.
“We are willing to do this work for free should we be asked, to help play our part in getting the UK through the pandemic as fast as possible.”
