Chesterfield Royal Hospital awaits delivery of storage for Pfizer and BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine

Last week, Pfizer and BioNTech said preliminary data suggested its vaccine offered around 90 per cent protection against the virus.

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The Government has secured around 40 million doses of the vaccine, which must be stored at around -70C to maintain optimal efficacy.

Chesterfield Royal Hospital spokesperson Sarah Turner-Saint said: “We will have the requisite storage – it’s due to be delivered.”

On Monday, it emerged the Government had ordered five million doses of another vaccine by Moderna, which has been found to be 94.5 per cent effective in preliminary trials.

At 11am on Tuesday, staff at the Royal were looking after 54 patients with Covid-19 – 11 of whom required intensive care.

On Monday last week, the hospital was caring for 69 people with the virus. Twelve needed intensive care.

According to NHS England, 169 coronavirus patients have died at the Royal.

Ms Turner-Saint said the trust had recorded a total of 176 Covid-19-related deaths since the end of March.

She explained that this figure includes seven people who never tested positive for the virus but were being treated for it because of other clinical indicators, such as a confirmation of the virus on a lung x-ray.

“National figures report deaths from Covid-19 where a patient had a positive swab test result,” she added.

Some 600 people who were admitted to the Royal with Covid-19 have been able to return home since the end of March.

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