Health board to call over 50s this weekend for Covid vaccine

NHS Shetland will be calling people this weekend offering Covid vaccines for those who are aged 50 or over, as well as people in at-risk groups and unpaid carers.

People from the Lerwick, Levenwick, Scalloway, Brae, Bixter and Walls GP practices will all be offered appointments at the next mass vaccination clinics at the Gilbertson Park in Lerwick.

NHS Shetland said: “The call you receive may be a withheld number – but please answer your phone if you can.

“If we can’t get hold of you by phone, don’t worry, you will get a letter but it will just delay your appointment a little.

“Patients in these groups from Hillswick, Unst, Yell and Whalsay will be called by their own practice.”

More than 10,000 people in Shetland have so far received their first dose of the vaccine, which amounts to over 50 per cent of the eligible population.

Up to 10 March more than 660 people – mainly those living and working in care homes – had received their second dose.

Meanwhile, a study of all healthcare workers employed by the NHS in Scotland and their households, shows that the rate of infection with Covid-19 for people that live with healthcare workers is at least 30 per cent lower when the worker has been vaccinated mostly with a single dose.

Since household members of healthcare workers can also be infected via other people (not just via the healthcare worker they live with), this 30 per cent relative risk reduction is thought to be an underestimate of the ‘true’ effect of vaccination on transmission.