Vaccination centres in the Harrogate district could open on Christmas Day and Boxing Day as part of the government drive to offer all adults a booster by the end of the year.
Firefighters are delivering vaccines in another bid to speed up the programme, public health officials in North Yorkshire revealed at a press conference today.
The officials said things were changing “very rapidly” across the country and although there were still no confirmed cases of the Omicron variant in the Harrogate district, they added it was likely to be present and spreading fast.
Read more:
- Vaccination centre to open at Harrogate hospital
- First suspected omicron cases found in Harrogate district
- Vaccine updates: Ripon racecourse opens for walk-ins
Amanda Bloor, the accountable officer for the North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group, told the press conference:
“The NHS is already experiencing high demand from patients. I would continue to ask people to be patient and respectful.
“We are expecting that a number of staff leave will be cancelled to mitigate the continued pressures. They are going to be working longer hours to get everyone through.
“In terms of the booster programme. This is the most complex phase yet, we are now moving with pace. We are looking at how best to increase capacity.
“All sites are increasing capacity on a daily basis. You can now access a vaccine very early in the morning to very late at night.
“We anticipate sites being open across the county every day except Christmas Day and Boxing Day but if we need to look at demand on those days we will do so.”
We have compiled a list of the sites in the Harrogate district where you can get a vaccine. You can see it by clicking or tapping here.
Harrogate District Hospital is set to open a vaccine centre tomorrow, which will only have capacity for booked appointments.
It is unclear how many vaccinations the hospital will administer a day or what times it will be open.
