A RECORD 2,300 people braved freezing weather on Saturday to visit York’s vaccination centre - and more than 90 per cent of the city’s over 70s have now been vaccinated.

The morale of staff and volunteers at the centre has also been boosted by a stream of plaudits from the public for the "lovely and helpful team," who they say have "exceeded expectations," says Professor Mike Holmes, who leads the centre on the former Askham Bar Park&Ride site.

Writing his latest column for The Press, he revealed that the centre had delivered more than 6,000 vaccines to York residents in six days last week, which he said was a "phenomenal effort," and York had played its part in the NHS passing through the landmark of getting 15 million people vaccinated, which was an "amazing achievement".

“This region alone has vaccinated half a million people and the York Vaccination Centre has done around 65,000,” he said.

He praised staff and volunteers at the centre who worked through bitterly cold weather over the past week.

“Whilst every single member of the team did a superb job, I want to mention our volunteers and our traffic marshals who braved the harsh conditions to ensure people got to the right place as efficiently as possible to have their vaccines,” he said.

He thanked members of the public for the praise and thanks they had expressed, such as one woman who said she had received her first dose after almost a year of shielding, and said: “I was in awe of how well organised everything was and how lovely and helpful the team were, even though it was freezing cold. You’re all doing an amazing job. Thank you just isn’t even enough!”

Prof Holmes said it made it "all the more special" when such messages were received: "The comments and messages we receive via email and on social media have really boosted morale.”

He said that as the centre moved into the next priority groups, people should wait for their invitation, adding that text was the most efficient way to contact them and it was really important that practices had their up to date mobile numbers and consent to use it.”

However, he stressed that anyone without a mobile phone would not miss out.