Professor Mike Holmes, who coordinates York’s Covid vaccination programme, says a pop-up clinic in Parliament Street over the bank holiday weekend jabbed almost 150 people

I’VE had many reasons to be proud of the team here at Nimbuscare and the bank holiday weekend was one of them. On Saturday, whilst most people may have been enjoying their well-earned rest, the team once again excelled themselves. They joined the rest of the NHS community over the August bank holiday to provide an opportunity to make getting a jab even easier with major events including the Reading and Leeds Festivals providing vaccine pop ups on site.

Setting up a vaccination clinic within a surgery or other clinical environment is tough, but setting up an operation similar to an field hospital in the city centre on one of the busiest bank holiday weekends of the year, was certainly a challenge. Nothing seems to faze our team these days and, with the help of the York community – City of York Council and Vale of York CCG - they rose to the challenge of trying to attract more people to get their vaccine. If they can’t come to us, they said, we’ll take the vaccine to them!

So, armed with pop up banners, barriers, lap tops, table and chairs, and of course, not forgetting the essential vaccine and clinical equipment, we set up in the early hours of Saturday morning for our first Parliament Street pop up clinic.

I’m pleased to say it was a resounding success and in just four hours we had vaccinated nearly 150 people. Running alongside this clinic we also ran another pop up vaccination clinic down the road at Jorvik Gillygate surgery on Stonebow which vaccinated another 113 people on Saturday morning. That’s not forgetting our Askham Bar Vaccination Centre which is open every day for walk ins now.

The latest figures show that nationally more than 75.2 million doses of the vaccine have been delivered. Thanks to the teams, more than half a million of the latest cohort – healthy 16 and 16 year olds – have already had one dose of the vaccine. In North Yorkshire and York we have already vaccinated 72 per cent of our 18 to 29 year olds with their first vaccine.

The vaccination programme has already substantially reduced the risk of people getting severe Covid. The latest national vaccine surveillance report estimates the programme has prevented around 23.9million infections and 95,000 deaths to date in England.

It’s also encouraging to see more pregnant women coming forward for their vaccine. More than 62,000 pregnant women have now received their first dose with 43,737 having their second dose. We know that Covid in pregnancy carries a significant risk of hospital admission and a higher risk of severe illness than for non-pregnant women and a higher risk of preterm birth. The Royal College of Midwives now recommend vaccination as one fo the best defences against severe infection and I would urge people to come forward for their vaccine.

As we continue to wait for the go ahead to deliver Covid boosters, I’m being asked if people should wait to have their Covid and Flu jabs together – the answer is a definite no. Please don’t postpone your flu jab when it’s offered and act on your invite as soon as possible. Eligible people should receive an invitation to attend for their flu jabs quite soon so please make sure you get yours.

We’re also being asked if people aged 16 and 17 will be getting a second dose of the vaccine Currently the JCVI is saying it is most likely this second dose is going to be at 12 weeks after the first dose although this isn’t confirmed yet. The benefit of this is becoming increasingly clear as it offers more protection for a longer period of time. Having the second dose later will extend protection for a longer period, for example when those young people start work or go to university, or if we begin to get another wave of cases in the winter.

So what about those under 16? Currently JCVI advice is that those aged 2-15 years old should only receive the vaccine if they are clinically extremely vulnerable or live in a household with someone who is. This group of people should receive two doses of the vaccine and this is what we are delivering here in York.

Throughout this pandemic, care home workers have done a phenomenal job to support and protect those most at risk from Covid. From 11 November, all care home workers and anyone entering a care home, will need to be fully vaccinated, unless they are exempt under the regulations. The deadline for having this vaccination in order to be fully vaccinated by that date is 16th September, so please make sure you get your vaccine before this deadline.