IT IS believed three Covid vaccine centres will be set up - at the Riverside Centre, in Newport, at the Westridge Centre and the West Wight Sports Centre - but those in charge of the centres have been unable to answer comment.

Island MP Bob Seely has reassured residents they will be getting the vaccine 'in a speedy way' when it comes to the distribution centre in Portsmouth.

He was unable to confirm the location or number of the centres.

He said: "Nothing has been decided yet because the plans are being worked up.

"Until we knew which vaccine came out first we could not start preparing because there are specific behaviours and protocols for each vaccine — how you treat it, how you transport it. That work is now ongoing."

More than 50 hospital hubs, including the closest to the Isle of Wight, in Portsmouth, will begin vaccinating people from next week, the NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens has said, kicking off the first phase of the largest-scale vaccination campaign Britain’s history.

He said: "Once the final hurdles are cleared and the vaccine arrives in England’s hospitals, health service staff will begin offering people this ground-breaking jab in a programme that will expand to cover the whole country in the coming months.”

The second stage will be getting the vaccination into the community through vaccination centres.

After the centres are set up, GP surgeries will be able to offer the vaccinations, depending on whether the approval has been given by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency to split the doses of vaccines, which currently come in packs of 975.

Mr Seely went on to say he thinks the placement of the centres will be dependent on where the GP surgeries are that are able to give out the vaccinations.Isle of Wight County Press: MP Bob Seely.MP Bob Seely. (Image: Newsquest.)

He said there would be a small number of people who got the vaccination first and we would be unlikely to see mass vaccinations before Christmas.

He said: "I don't know who it will be for first, NHS staff and care workers, which makes sense, or those in care homes, which also makes sense. There are different strategies and tactics."

The NHS Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group, who along with the Isle of Wight NHS Trust will be running the vaccine roll out, said they were not able to confirm specifics or provide further details.

When asked for further information, the IW NHS Trust said it was still waiting for the full details and plans to be shared with them but would provide the information when they had it.