Professor Mike Holmes, who leads York’s vaccination centre at Askham Bar, says that there has been no slacking on the Covid-19 vaccine front

IT may have been half-term holiday week for some but the vaccination programme certainly hasn’t had any time for a breather.

The programme continues to make great progress with more than 57 million vaccines delivered so far.

Around 22 Million people have now received a second dose. In our region, we’re doing well - 92 per cent of adults in cohorts 1-9 have now had their first vaccine and 78.3 per cent have had their second dose.

That means three-quarters of everyone in our region has received at least one dose of the vaccine.

We’re still on course to offer all adults a first dose by the end of July and vaccines are now being offered to everyone aged 25 and over.

More good news is that a recent study from Public Health England has found that the vaccine effectiveness against the Indian variant is similar after two doses to the Kent variant.

The MHRA has announced this week that the Janssen vaccine, which is a single dose vaccine, meets its expected standards.

Twenty million doses have been secured for the UK and first deliveries are expected to arrive later this year.

So, once the JCVI provides advice on the use of the vaccine, we hope to be able to start using it here in York too.

We’ve heard that some people have been booking vaccine appointments in locations which have involved travelling some significant distance, despite there being local slots available.

Please book your Covid vaccine locally to avoid unnecessary travel. If you can’t book at your local centre, please keep checking as new slots are added regularly.

This last week was volunteer’s week and we, quite rightly, recognised the many volunteers supporting the vaccination programme. They represent one of the largest mobilisations of volunteers in NHS history, having already completed a staggering 700,000 shift hours and counting. We couldn’t carry out this programme without them.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be an equivalent ‘Vaccinator Week’ in our annual awareness week calendar.

So, I want to recognise the many clinical vaccinators and vaccinator administrators, who are vital members of our vaccination team.

They are made up of healthcare workers from our local GP practices - nurses, doctors, paramedics, pharmacists, advanced practitioners - as well as local dentists, members of St John Ambulance, army medics, return-to-work healthcare professionals, hospital clinicians, locums, to name a few.

We truly have a multi-professional team from varied backgrounds and communities.

With the support of the team of trained vaccinator administrators, they are the ones who do the shifts each week to make sure everyone gets their jabs as safely as possible.

And while everyone was enjoying the sunshine this weekend, we continued to work - 8am til 8pm - to keep those numbers going up. As of June 4, more than 1.8m doses of the vaccine had been delivered in our region

Some GP surgeries and community pharmacies are now stepping down from the vaccination programme to focus on their day to day activities.

The pace will continue at Askham Bar which delivers both a national and local service.

We’ll be continuing with our mobile vaccination service and there will be a number of ‘pop-up’ sites around York, including one at York University on June 14.

Other activities at Askham Bar this week include putting up the flags to support York Pride 2021, as well as making great progress on our special memorial garden. Thanks to all those volunteers and staff who have helped with these.

We’re also getting into training ready to take part in the Midnight Walk for St Leonard’s Hospice which Nimbuscare is sponsoring this year.

The event is happening on June 26 and everyone is welcome to take part - find our more at: https://stleonardshospice.org.uk/how-can-you-help-us/events/