‘Melton to have Covid vaccination centre before Christmas’

That was the prediction of Melton MP, Alicia Kearns, shortly after the news broke that the MHRA had formally authorised the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which has shown to give 95 per cent protection from the virus in trials.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said this morning that the UK was the first country in the world to have a clinically approved vaccine and that the NHS would start vaccinating people in this country early next week.

It is thought the frontline health workers will be first in line for the jab, along with elderly residents of care homes and other vulnerable members of society.

MP Mrs Kearns Tweeted this morning: “We should have Covid-19 vaccination centres established in Oakham and Melton before Christmas thanks to the hard work and advance planning of Matt Hancock and local councils.”

Discussion are believed to be at an advanced stage to establish where the vaccination centre would be in Melton but a location has not yet been confirmed.

The news comes as Leicestershire County Council has taken delivery of its first batch of lateral flow test kits – up to 16,000 - which are capable of giving a coronavirus test result in around 30 minutes with no need for lab equipment.

Leicestershire is, from today, under the toughest Tier 3 Covid restricions has a result of its high infection rate.

For the period November 19-25, infection rates stood at 193.7 per 100,000 of the Leicestershire population compared to the national rate of 175.8.

Council leader Nick Rushton says the ‘welcome arrival’ of the test kits puts the county at the forefront of the plan to expand asymptomatic testing across the country with pilot schemes now running across more than 60 local authorities.

He said: “It’s welcome news that the kits have arrived, we can now start the work of getting them to ‘hot-spots’ where infection rates are high.

“The more people we can test, the more we’ll be able to bring this virus under control.

“I would urge anyone with any symptoms, no matter how mild, to book a test.”

Mike Sandys, director of public health for Leicestershire County Council, has outlined in more detail how the test kits work.

He said: “The challenge has always been that some people who have Covid-19 don’t show any symptoms.

“Where the lateral flow tests differ from the usual swab kits is that there’ll be a test result within an hour, without the need for lab processing.

“It now means we can test high-risk groups, help identify cases and then get people to self-isolate quickly to break the chain of infection.”

The council can draw down from the national supply as needed, but it is looking to have a stock of 10,000 kits at any one time to deploy rapidly.

The tests will also target electoral wards with the highest rates and location where there has been a number of cases.

They will help to protect critical services through regular testing, such as police, fire and rescue services as well as staff working in the education sector

Commenting on the decision to place the whole of Leicestershire into Tier 3 from today, Mr Sandys added: “Ahead of the second lockdown, it was pretty obvious that the virus was spreading quickly across Leicestershire, so it’s not unreasonable to come out of the lockdown in a higher tier than when we went in.

“Looking at our latest infection rates, which are falling, it’s clear this lockdown has had a real effect in the past week and pushed the numbers down, but there is still work to be done and we’re looking at a county-wide effort to further reduce the impact of the virus.”