UK Edition
NHS front-line staff will no longer be prioritised for the coronavirus vaccine, amid confusion over the number of doses that will arrive by the end of the year.
Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, said that an initial 800,000 doses "could be the only batch we receive for some time".
This is despite the UK originally expecting 10 million shots by the end of the year, and the chief commercial officer of the vaccine creator BioNTech Sean Marett saying on Wednesday that the UK was likely to get at least five million doses by the New Year.
NHS staff were to be first in line for the jabs after it was deemed too difficult to get the vaccine to care homes, which were originally at the top of a priority list set out by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
However, after the supply problem emerged, care homes were bumped up the list again, meaning most NHS workers will now have to wait.
The first vaccines arrived in Britain on Thursday night. One million jabs were delivered to a secure Public Health England depot where they will undergo further checks before being delivered to 50 designated hospital hubs across the four nations.
It came as the official death toll for coronavirus passed 60,000, after the Government announced a further 414 deaths, taking the total to 60,113.
It also emerged that people who receive the vaccine will not be exempted from self-isolation if they are contacted by NHS Test and Trace, as a government source said that scientists do not yet know if the jab prevents people from being carriers of the virus.
However, it was announced on Thursday that business travellers are to be exempted from quarantine from 4am on Saturday.
Commenting on the concern over supply of the vaccine, Mr Hopson said: “Our expectation is that the small number of NHS staff who have been booked for a vaccine will receive it, but hospitals will review those bookings in light of the JCVI guidance on prioritising the most at risk staff.
“But in line with guidance from the JCVI the initial supply will be directed at other priority groups, such as care home residents, carers and staff, and people over 80.
“As the vaccines start to become available there will be a balance between these different groups, and the programme will expand rapidly as we move into the new year. ”
The vaccine is difficult to get to care homes because it must be kept at around -103F (-75C) and comes in large batches of 975 shots which, under quality control regulations, cannot be broken up.
There was further confusion on Thursday night as the NHS said it could not ship the vaccine to care homes until the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) had authorised the splitting of batches.
However, Scotland said that it had solved the splitting issue and would start sending out small batches to care homes from December 14.
The MHRA told The Telegraph that Scotland was correct and that approval was already in place to break up batches. However, NHS England insisted they must await full MHRA approval.
Jeane Freeman, the Scottish Health Secretary, told the Scottish Parliament: ‘Following detailed discussions led by our chief pharmaceutical officer, we now have confirmation on the basis of the stability data that the Pfizer vaccine can be transported in an unfrozen state for up to 12 hours and can be stored undiluted for up to five days.
“I'm also pleased to confirm that under certain conditions, we can pack down to smaller pack sizes, both of which makes this vaccine more usable with minimum wastage for care home residents and for our older citizens.
“So in effect, we can take the vaccine to them or close to them. And we will begin that exercise from December 14.”
On Thursday night, care homes said they were still "in the dark" about whether staff and residents would be vaccinated and called for staff to be allowed to visit hospitals to be immunised.
John Palmer of Independent Age, said: “We believe that care homes must be as safe as possible and that care home staff should be able to get vaccinated in a local hospital if that is practical and the only option available at present.
“If it is impossible to vaccinate older people in care homes at the moment, we should still vaccinate the staff as they can be a vector for the virus.”
Care England also called for adult social care staff to be prioritised even if residents had to wait.
NHS Providers (the membership organisation for the NHS hospital, mental health, community and ambulance services) said the first jabs would be given on Tuesday, and said they would be working with care homes in the coming days to "maximise the number of care home carers and workers coming into hospital hubs for vaccination".
Hospitals will also be told to identify "as many patients over-80 as possible that they can vaccinate".
Mr Hopson said: “If there are vaccine doses left over, hospitals will then vaccinate staff based on defined risk/already booked.”
NHS Providers said supplies were only assured for December and January.
The vaccine must be given in two doses so half of the supply must be kept back to ensure that everyone can have a second vaccination three weeks later, meaning only 400,000 people can be vaccinated in the initial phase.
However, the number of care home residents and staff exceeds that number.