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Residents have received the first invitations for coronavirus vaccinations to be carried out in the Caerphilly County Borough.
Residents have received invitations to Ty Penallta, the council’s headquarters, to receive vaccine doses, while GP surgeries have also received vaccines.
It is understood Ty Penallta will become the county borough’s first mass vaccination centre, however neither the council nor Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB) have confirmed this.
On Tuesday, January 5, ABUHB announced centres would open in Caerphilly, Newport, Abergavenny and Ebbw Vale, in addition to the current centre at Cwmbran Stadium.
The extension of vaccination facilities follows the Welsh Government’s rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
On Wednesday (January 6) GP surgeries reported receiving their first deliveries of the new vaccine.
Due to easier storage, the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca can be used across a number of different settings, including in GP surgeries, in mobile vaccination centres, and in care homes.
People have been told not to contact their GPs and instead wait until they receive an invitation for vaccination
In a tweet, Caerphilly Council announced that Dennis Stevens, 95, and Gareth Osbourne, 75, both residents at Castle View Care Home in Caerphilly, were the first two care home residents to receive the Oxford vaccine in the county.
Around 40,000 doses of the vaccine have been made available for the first two weeks of the rollout, which started on Monday, January 4.
One hundred million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been secured by the UK Government, with Wales receiving its allocation based on population in the coming weeks and months.
Each person will need two doses of the vaccine to maximise its effectiveness, with a gap of between four and 12 weeks between the doses.
More than 35,000 people in Wales have received vaccinations so far.
On Monday, January 4, Health Minister Vaughan Gething refused to commit to a timeframe for when the first phase of vaccinations – including all health and care staff, care home residents and clinically extremely vulnerable people – would be complete.
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