Care home vaccinations ‘likely to pick up early in the new year’

Jewish care homes across the capital have been assured that residents and staff will be vaccinated next month following fears of delays.

Martin Machray, the capital’s Covid-19 Incident Director, addressed representatives of all synagogue movements and major charities on Monday, in a virtual meeting organised by the London Jewish Forum.

This comes amid concern from Jewish social care groups that vaccine doses could only be delivered in hospitals or at specific locations with facilities to store them – and could not be separated from a larger batch of almost 1,000 doses.

Get The Jewish News Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

As a result, Brent-based care home Jewish Choice was told last week it may have to wait until mid-February to gets its residents and staff jabs.

Responding to concerns raised by Jewish Care during the call, Machray said “successful” trials last week mean authorities “can safely move the vaccine into residential spaces and do a vaccination programme for staff and residents”.

“We’ve only got small quantities of vaccines in London and we will start this week in one or two care homes with a view of starting in the other care homes” in the new year.

Gaby Wills, Director of Care Services for Jewish Care said: “It was very helpful to be given clarification on the availability of vaccines in care homes and we were encouraged to hear that the roll out of the vaccine is likely to pick up in care homes early in the new year.”

Paula Peake, Chief Executive of Jewish Choice told Jewish News that while “the meeting did present a little more light at the end of the tunnel.. nothing definitive was said – and certainly nothing as definitive as the Government has been saying, in positioning care homes as a top priority for the vaccine.

“The frustration we and our relatives have is that others elsewhere in the community and even in the near locality have received the vaccine before Christmas, but some of the most vulnerable in Brent have not and we don’t know when that very real need might be addressed.”

She added, that “while not confirmed, we have heard from another source that vaccines may be rolled-out to us in the second week of January.”

The chief nurse also sought to allay fears about the kosher status of the jab, insisting it is “completely synthetically made” and nothing about it is “un-Kosher.”

He dismissed rumours regarding its impact on fertility raised by strictly-Orthodox groups, saying: “There is an awful lot of nonsense” spoken.

“We have no evidence that this impacts fertility at all. We do suggest that if you are breastfeeding or pregnant you shouldn’t have it as we don’t know if it is safe enough to be given in those circumstances. This is just a precaution rather than because it causes problems.”

Following the government’s decision to move London and large parts of the south east into Tier 4 restrictions, a third of United Synagogue communities announced temporary closures.

When asked if rabbis should deter older members from going to shul, he said it’s a “really difficult one” and a matter of personal choice.

This week, Sir Ben Helfgott, 91, became the latest Holocaust survivor to get vaccinated. In the last two weeks, Eve Kugler, 89, Harry Kessler, 90, and Lily Ebert all received the first doses.

Co-Chairs of the London Jewish Forum, Andrew Gilbert and Adrian Cohen, together with Director Daniel Kosky, said: “We were delighted to bring together the leadership of London’s Jewish community to get an exclusive briefing for our community from London’s Chief Nurse”.

On the call were representatives of the Jewish Leadership Council, Board of Deputies, Jewish Care, Jewish Choice, Nightingale Hammerson, JAMI, Norwood, United Synagogue, Reform Judaism, Liberal Judaism, Masorti Judaism, Federation of Synagogues, Bikur Cholim, S&P, The Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, Union of Jewish Students and University Jewish Chaplaincy.

As of the week ending 18 December, there had been 616 coronavirus-related deaths in the community.

Support your Jewish community. Support your Jewish News

Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.

For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.

Read more

Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.

You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.

100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...

Engaging

Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.

Celebrating

There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.

Pioneering

In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.

Campaigning

Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.

Easy access

In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.

Voice of our community to wider society

The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.

We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.

Help us here