A new mass vaccination centre could be ready to open in County Durham as early as next week.
Health bosses for the region have previously raised the prospect of a site in the county to complement facilities currently up and running in Washington and Newcastle.
And if a deal can be agreed on a new venue, it is hoped it could be ready to start dishing out jabs as early as next Monday.
“[We] put forward seven sites to the regional organisation as potential vaccination centres in County Durham,” said Michael Laing, director of integrated community services at the County Durham Care Partnership (CDPC).
“I understand they have now decided that they will have a vaccination centre [and] they were looking for a year’s lease on a mass vaccination centre.
"And I think announcements are imminent on that, which will probably open on the 15th of February.
“I’m unable to tell you the site at the moment, but I understand that the regional vaccination centre will be making those announcements.”
Laing was speaking at last Friday's meeting of Durham County Council’s Adults, Wellbeing and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, which was held by videolink and broadcast via YouTube.
Although a mass vaccination centre for the county would be expected to speed the pace of the current jab programme, Laing insisted the current set-up run by GPs has already proved ‘incredibly efficient’.
However, he also faced questions about the ‘haphazard’ rollout of the initiative across the county, which has seen priority groups in some areas vaccinated but not in others.
As well as changes to changes in government guidelines over the Christmas and New Year period, variations in facilities among practices was blamed for some pushing ahead faster than others.
He added: “[It is] all linked to the GPs’ ability to have premises where people could socially distance and get the staff in place to give the vaccine and be able to store the vaccines in line with the clinical guidance, which [for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine] was at very low temperatures.
“In the Dales, in Barnard Castle, the [hospital] trust worked with the GPs and made the Richardson hospital available, which is a big space with clinical facilities. Somewhere else, for example like Pelton and Chester-le-Street, needed to do more work and therefore started later.
“That explains the haphazard but staged way that it happened.”
