THE launch of the spring campaign to give a fourth Covid jab to vulnerable residents saw almost 2,000 people make their way to York’s vaccination centre last week.

Professor Mike Holmes, who coordinates the centre at Askham Bar, said the response to the NHS’s offer of a second booster jab for people aged over 75 or with a weakened immune systems had been ‘really encouraging'.

Writing in his weekly column for The Press, he said he couldn’t emphasise enough how important it was for people to respond to their invitation and keep up with their vaccinations.

“The NHS has run the largest and most successful vaccination service in the world and we’re continuing to protect people from serious illness,” he said.

He said Nimbuscare, which runs the centre, needed York people to do their part and make the trip to the vaccination centre.

“People will see a big difference to the site as we continue to develop it,” he said.

“We’re really proud of our new building and have already moved a few of our services into one area. Our new office building is also taking shape.”

He revealed that inside a new temporary modular building - which recently replaced the old ‘tent of hope’ - health checks were being held for people over 40.

He said the NHS health check was a check-up for adults aged 40 to 74, designed to spot the early signs of stroke, kidney disease, heart disease diabetes or dementia.

“As we get older, we have a higher risk of developing one of these and our teams can help you manage these risks,” he said.

“So if you receive your invite to attend for your NHS health check, come down to Askham Bar and we will welcome you.”

He said Nimbuscare was looking forward to running a host of new services in such a way, on behalf of its member GP practices.

By running some services jointly, on behalf of all 11 GP practices, it could work more efficiently and free up time for GP practices to focus on other patient needs.

“We believe this is the way forward for community healthcare and will help general practice be more sustainable,” he said.

Prof Holmes said that the York Children’s Treatment Hub, also based at Askham Bar, had cared for 300 children under the age of 11 so far, saving unnecessary visits to hospital for their families.

He said almost 600,000 Covid vaccinations had now been delivered, and 90 per cent of people aged 18-80 were fully vaccinated.

Nimbuscare had also delivered more than 80 outreach pop-up clinics which gave more than 25,000 vaccinations at York’s universities, homeless shelters, city streets, churches and school halls.

It had also made 58 visits to secondary schools across north Yorkshire for the programme for 12-15 year olds, and did more than 25,000 vaccinations to people in care homes, sheltered housing and who were housebound.

“We held 12 bespoke antenatal vaccination clinics to support uptake in pregnant women as well as a number of bespoke vaccination clinics to support patients with learning disabilities,” he said, adding that the same staff who got residents through the pandemic would hep them recover from it.