The first supply of the Pfizer and BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine has arrived in Guernsey and vaccinations will begin next week.

The Bailiwick has taken delivery of its first supplies of the first coronavirus vaccine.

Immunisations will begin on Thursday of next week and continue until the following Monday.

A second batch of the jab is expected next week but there is no scheduled arrival date at the moment.

Speaking at the latest media briefing, the Director of Public Health said 975 doses are in special frozen storage and will begin to be rolled out at the Emma Ferbrache Room at the PEH.

"The groups we will be immunising in the first instance will be our care and residential home staff together with other frontline staff. 

" We can't immunise every member of every group at the same time because of course the vaccine can cause some pain in the arm, some people might get a slight fever or feel a little flu-like, so for the sake of business continuity we are going to cycle people in to the immunisation programme.

"We've been working hard getting lists of individuals and people have already had letters delivered to them in the first tranche. But we also want to ensure we have equity for people in Alderney and Sark as well.

"One of the issues with this vaccine is its transportation after it has been defrosted, so we are going to bring frontline workers from those islands over to the PEH and immunise them here."

Deputy Al Brouard the President of Health & Social Care reminded everyone that the vaccine is not compulsory and we must decide whether we want to have it or not.

"If you want to get more information on the vaccine online, please ensure you use a reputable website. A link to an independent website is available on gov.gg."

Islanders who want the jab are being asked to wait until they are written to and not to call Public Health to ask when they will receive it.