HEALTH bosses have hailed ‘phenomenal progress’ in Trafford’s vaccine rollout.

A total of 82 per cent of eligible adults across the borough have had a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and 86 per cent of these have had both doses.

Rebecca Demaine of Trafford Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) gave an update to Trafford Council’s public engagement board meeting this week.

In it, she said: “It’s quite phenomenal progress. Staggeringly, we’ve got 97.7 per cent of over 80s vaccinated.

“I don’t think there’s ever been performance like that across a vaccination programme, so that’s fantastic.

“And 98.2 per cent of care home residents are vaccinated.”

She explained a maximum of four care homes in Trafford currently have a vaccination rate of less than 80 per cent of their staff – something the CCG is required to report into Greater Manchester board meetings about on a weekly basis.

Trafford CCG completed its first pop-up vaccination clinic at Kellogg’s in Trafford Park a fortnight ago which was also labelled ‘a huge success’.

READ MORE: Coronavirus: Two Trafford vaccine clinics open to walk-ins.

Ms Demaine explained they had first and second doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines available on the day and the team were able to deliver around 150 vaccinations there.

The possibility of rolling out pop-up vaccination clinics to other businesses across the borough, such as the Trafford Centre and sports venues dotted throughout Trafford is being looked at.

There has been a slow down in uptake as the vaccine programme moves through the younger population, which Ms Demaine explained was not entirely unexpected.

She added: “It’s not come as any surprise, it’s not something that we hadn’t planned for or unique to Trafford. It’s a regional and national issue.”

Preparations to roll out a coronavirus booster jab over the winter are also under way.

Guidance was issued nationally a fortnight ago and Ms Demaine explained the booster is likely to be offered in line with the original priority cohorts that were used to roll out the first dose and second dose of the jab.

Booster jabs are set to be given to patients from September onwards.

The idea is to see administration of the coronavirus booster jab and flu vaccine running in parallel.