Ramsey Cottage Hospital will be used as a vaccination centre today (Saturday).
The Department of Health and Social Care announced that the pop-up centre will operate at the Cottage Hospital as a one-off this Saturday, (February 13) from 9am to 2pm.
More than 200 jabs will be given, but the DHSC said all available slots are filled and so people will not be able to call 111 to book. People receiving the vaccine on Saturday will be those who had registered and had already been offered an appointment.
A spokesman for the DHSC said that further details about a northern vaccination hub would be announced at a later date.
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Meanwhile in Douglas, the Chester Street vaccination hub is almost ready to open, the official date being Monday (February 15).
Ward 20 at the Newlands site at the Noble’s Hospital estate closed yesterday as a vaccination centre.
The DHSC said that due to the large numbers involved and to avoid a surge of calls to 111 in one day, letters to those aged between 75 to 79 have been sent in batches of around 500, meaning that the dispatch process will take a number of days to complete.
Some of the first recipients may have had their jabs already on receiving their letter and if a slot was available, but those receiving the letters in the last couple of days will most likely be booked in at the Chester Street hub.
Phase one of the vaccination programme began January 4, the first priority group to be given the vaccine being frontline health care workers and care home staff. This phase is due to finish at the end of May and phase two is scheduled to be completed by September.
Minister for Health and Social Care David Ashford MHK told a Covid briefing this afternoon (Friday): ‘The vaccination programme continues to roll out at a pace.
‘We have now delivered first doses to over 11% of our population and 4% of our population have been completed entirely, having received the second dose.
‘In terms of the vaccination programme, letters to the over 75s have recently been going out and we have also now started sending out letters to those over the age of 70, those who are extremely clinically vulnerable and their carers.’