Support in Calderdale to give teachers Covid-19 vaccine

Cabinet member for Children and Young People’s Services, Coun Adam Wilkinson told Calderdale Health and Wellbeing Board he hoped schools would be allowed to return to the classroom as soon as possible.

“It is not likely in the short term because of the new variant of COVID-19 but one of the challenges is making staff feel safe and there is a case for prioritising teachers,” he said.

Coun Wilkinson (Lab, Sowerby Bridge) said he accepted in early years settings the transmission among very young children was not as much of a danger as older children, but nonetheless staff came into contact with large groups of children and two-year-olds did not know how to socially distance and did not wear masks.

Leader of the council, Coun Tim Swift (Lab, Town) said he understood why Coun Wilkinson had raised the point and it would continue to be raised nationally.

“But it is important we understand there is a clear rationale and that we operate within that national framework,” he said.

Kate Horne, Calderdale COVID Vaccination Programme manager, said that by the end of January, all care home residents and staff in the borough will have been offered COVID-19 vaccinations.

“In terms of our over 80s we have achieved really good coverage and we are working down the priority cohorts.

“Among West Yorkshire, Calderdale is one of the highest performers, we are getting good feedback, including from the Boots centre,” she said.

Boots in Halifax is one of the company’s pharmacies which is undertaking vaccinations.

In Calderdale, health teams including the Primary Care Networks, are in a fortunate position to have plenty of capacity available at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, said Ms Horne.

Around 4,000 appointments per week are available seven days a week between 7.15am and 8.30pm on both the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and Calderdale Royal Hospital sites to vaccinate front line health and social care staff from both boroughs.

She said vaccination “is the best option for preventing serious illness and death along our population,” she said.

The council’s Chief Executive, Robin Tuddenham, said the core message at this point was vaccination helps health partners separate harm from infection.

“The evidence is clearly very powerful that it reduces the risk of hospitalisation and mortality but we don’t know how it affects transmission,” he said.

If cohorts 1-4 – residents and staff in care homes, the over 80s and frontline care staff, the over 75s and the over 70s, and clinically vulnerable individuals over 16 – could be vaccinated, mortality could be reduced by 66 per cent, rising to 90 per cent in cohorts 1-6 said Mr Tuddenham.

The biggest challenge would be take-up among BAME communities, he said.

Helen Hunter of Healthwatch Calderdale, said feedback her organisation had got back from the public was positive and where there was hesitancy about taking the offer up they wanted to identify information that might help those groups.

The meeting heard informal, unpaid or hidden carers were an important group health partners were also trying to identify.