PEOPLE aged over 40 who haven’t yet had their first Covid jab can now just walk into York’s vaccination centre and ask for a shot.

Walk-in and pop-up clinics are also being planned elsewhere in York, including at some city centre surgeries, as medics try to achieve an even higher vaccination uptake to help tackle the Delta variant.

Professor Mike Holmes, who leads the mass vaccination centre at Askham Bar, revealed the developments in this week’s column in The Press, in which he stressed that anyone could still get their jab.

“If you’re 40 or over and haven’t yet had your first vaccine, you can now walk in to our York Vaccination Centre anytime between 8am and 8pm and we will be happy to give you your jab – it’s not too late,” he said.

“Going forward, we will be holding more pop clinics and walk in clinics in the city, working with the university, colleges, City of York Council and GP practices.

“We will also be holding walk in clinics in some of our city centre surgeries too and more information about this will be available on our website."

He revealed that 27 per cent of people aged between 18 and 30 in North Yorkshire and Vale of York had already been vaccinated with their first dose and 91 per cent of people aged 50 and over have received both does of the vaccine in England.

Meanwhile, more than 300,000 people had been vaccinated at the York centre over the past six months and more than 750 had attended two pop-up vaccination clinics held at the University of York last week.

“It was great to see students and local people turn up to get their jab – some just receiving their text messages the night before,” he said.

He said an 18-year-old student had brought along a thank you card she had made for the team, adding: "It’s these moments which make it all worthwhile and I’m humbled by the kindness of many of our patients.”

He said two doses were known to be effective at preventing hospital admissions against the more transmissible Delta variant.

“We are beginning to feel the success of the vaccination programme as we see fewer cases and hospital transmissions amongst those who have been vaccinated.”