The vaccine was saved today at a care home in Lincolnshire where two-thirds of the elderly were killed by coronavirus.
The Old Hall at Halton Holegate, near Spilsby, revealed that the jabs had taken place on site in great encouragement to staff and residents.
Manager Diane Vale took to social media to announce the happy news, saying ‘Vaccination Day. Well done everyone. ‘
MailOnline understands that vaccinations started at around 9am today and were completed by early in the afternoon.
Pictures of smiling staff and residents showed them holding up a sign reading ‘I have been vaccinated against Covid’.
It came the day after Diana talked about the ‘absolutely horrific’ problem of seeing 18 former residents die in a coronavirus outbreak.
One care home worker proudly maintained a sign indicating that she had been vaccinated
Vaccinations are understood to have started at around 9am and will continue until 2pm
Manager Diane Vale proudly told the online news on the home’s public Facebook
All residents and 20 employees of the Old Hall at Halton Holegate, near Spilsby, contracted the virus in November, with the first occupant dying on the 16th.
Over the next six weeks a further 17 people from Covid died. Most were in their 90s, with the youngest being 79 and the oldest 99.
Some of the deaths were so sudden that workers did not have the opportunity to provide end-of-life treatment or arrange for loved ones to say goodbye.
Meanwhile the staff themselves have moved to a nearby caravan to ensure that they can provide assistance without much notice.
After an inspection by CQC, the care home regulator, it was found that the home was doing everything it could to prevent the spread of the virus.
Diane said the situation had been ‘absolutely horrific’.
Other employees look very happy after getting the jobs after a few months
Staff at the Old Hall in Halton Holegate, Lincs, hit by coronavirus revolution
Diane Vale, the care home’s manager, said the situation had been ‘extremely horrific’ and that some deaths were so sudden that staff could not provide end-of-life treatment or arrange for -love bids farewell
‘None of us were positive, all residents and 20 out of 28 employees. It was horrible. ‘
‘Some passed away alone as there was no suggestion that anything was going to happen. We went in to do checks and they were gone, ‘she told the Guardian.
There were enough checks at home to deal with a revolution, but sadly, Diane and her team were left without power.
‘We had a contingency plan in place for advanced matters, using our upstairs area and our three individual wings, but then everyone did a positive test all on the same day, so he went out the window.
“While all the staff were also optimistic we continued to work to the best of our ability, there were a couple of colleagues who had to leave when they were adversely affected. ‘
This is the deadliest revolution that has erupted in an English care home in the second wave of the pandemic as the new, more transmissible strain of the virus spreads across the country.
Some of the deaths were so sudden that workers did not have the opportunity to provide end-of-life treatment or to arrange for loved ones to say goodbye.
Public Health England data shows that the number of outbreaks in care homes in England has almost tripled in just three weeks.
According to The Guardian, 52 people from Covid died in Lincolnshire area care homes between late November and January 3, second only to the number of care home deaths, 71, in East Riding.
On January 7, a ‘major revolution’ was declared at a 49-bed care home in Grantham, with 30 residents and 32 staff testing positive for coronavirus since mid-December. Five residents have died, three in the home and two in hospital.
Now full again with 26 residents, Diane is hopeful she won’t see a repetition of the run-up to Christmas after being told that everyone at home will get vaccinated tomorrow.
‘We’re doing fine now, I believe you could say fortunately that everyone had the disease all at once,’ she said. ‘We’re free right now and hope we stay that way.
‘We’re getting the vaccines tomorrow, they called us last week and told us we were reserved for tomorrow, and they’ll be vaccinating the residents and the cargo all work.
‘The home is full again now, we have 26 residents in just one empty room at the moment, unfortunately a lot of people have been in hospital and there has been a huge demand for the move in when they are good enough.
‘We are very fortunate that in reality, some homes have collapsed because they have not been able to keep it financially stable.’
Diane also thanked her staff, saying: ‘The staff that got through with me and my deputy, Andrea, I wouldn’t have done without … The staff were amazing. ‘
Last summer, deputy manager Andrea Green said the home felt abandoned by the government because of a lack of leadership that left workers ‘waiting for themselves’.
To protect the occupants and keep the place free of Covid, a group of caretakers moved into caravans and camp beds in the loft for three months.
She told BBC Radio Lincolnshire: ‘There has been no clarity, so unless you were just sitting at the computer or waiting for advice to come through via email or watch Boris on the TV, because that was pretty much what we got.
‘We felt like we were waiting for ourselves.’