YORK’S mass vaccination centre has launched a recruitment drive for volunteers as some regulars return to their permanent jobs.

The complex at Askham Bar - which jabbed almost 12,000 people over the weekend after extending its opening hours to 6am to 11pm - has also joined up with local colleges to offer work experience opportunities.

Professor Mike Holmes, who coordinates the centre, said: “It’s been great this week to welcome students from a number of schools and colleges across York who are volunteering on site.

“Learning about how healthcare works must be a good thing for young people, especially if they are looking at careers in the NHS.

“As people return to work and our hospitality and other industries open up, some of our volunteer workers have understandably had to stop working at the site. So we’ve started a recruitment drive for new volunteers.

“If you’re keen to be part of this historical vaccination programme, please get in touch via our website.”

He said the power of collaborative team work had never been more evident than over the last few days in York as staff “pulled out all the stops” to vaccinate a record number of people, with almost 12,000 people attending for vaccinations over the weekend.

“Opening the site from 6am until 11pm over the weekend has been an amazing effort,” he said. “Vaccine supply was good, but it meant clinical and admin staff, traffic marshals and volunteers had to opt in to work additional hours to keep the site running.

“We were overwhelmed with offers from members of the team to work the extra shifts – it’s so impressive how much of an effort everyone is putting in to speed up the vaccine programme and I’ve been really humbled by their commitment.”

He said the centre was currently delivering all three of the licensed vaccines at the site – the AztraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer - with the programme gaining more significance as experts became aware of more Covid-19 variants spreading in the community. Our immediate priority is to make sure we vaccinate all eligible adults with a first dose and help people re-book their second dose appointments,” he said.

“The message is clear – if you’re over 34 yrs old you can book your first vaccine now. The rationale for this weekend’s effort was to bring forward second doses to 8 week for our residents in the JCVI cohorts 1-9.

“If you, or anyone you know, is over 50 years-old and hasn’t yet been vaccinated, it’s not too late. We very much welcome you here at the York Vaccination Centre – all you need to do is go online and book or ring 119. To keep everyone safe and protected as new variants of the virus emerge, it’s more important than ever for you to come forward.”