Two more pharmacies will soon carry out Covid-19 vaccines, joining Triangle Pharmacy in Tilehurst, which is currently the only chemist to offer the service in Reading.
The latest addition include Erleigh Road Pharmacy, 85 Erleigh Road in east Reading, and Western Elms Pharmacy, near Reading West Station and the town centre at 353 Oxford Road.
They are “about to go live”, according to Reading Borough Council’s (RBC) Public Health Consultant David Munday, although no date has yet been confirmed.
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Speaking at RBC’s Covid-19 Outbreak Engagement Board on Friday, April 23, he said: “There is one that has been running for a while, the Triangle in Tilehurst, and there are two further pharmacies, which if they are not yet live are about to go live.”
Erleigh Road Pharmacy
Western Elms Pharmacy
Explaining how getting a vaccine at a local pharmacy works, he added: “In terms of access to pharmacies as a route in for vaccination, that’s through the national booking system.
“When people become eligible, primarily because of their age cohort, they receive a letter inviting them to come forward for vaccination.
“Most people use the website and it gives you a list of options. It will give you the Madejski Stadium and other mass vaccine sites, if its more convenient to go to Basingstoke or Oxford, and it also list what the pharmacy offer locally is and you simply book where is most convenient.”
The Chronicle spoke to the two pharmacies on Friday, April 23, to ask when the service will begin.
Western Elms asked us to contact their parent company Enimed for more details, while Erleigh Road, also part of Enimed, said they would have more details on the start date in the coming weeks.
Enimed have been contacted for a response on when the pharmacies will start offering the service.
64,979 people in Reading Borough have received at least one dose of the vaccine out of an estimated population of 199,043, according to the latest statistics released on April 22.
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