Almost 1,000 people in 12 hours received the coronavirus vaccine at Newcastle's first Primary Care Network community site on Wednesday.
The Covid-19 jab was rolled out at Newcastle Eagles basketball centre, with residents aged 80 and over being the first set of people to be vaccinated.
There were plenty of happy faces amongst the staff, volunteers and patients as the centre welcomed patients to receive their vaccine this morning. A further 1000 people will be vaccinated at another site next week.
More than 70 people are working and volunteering at the site, including Lisa, a marketing officer from Newcastle.
“I'm just so pleased - after seeing how hard all the NHS staff have been working over the past few year - that we can now get involved and help out. I've been waiting to be able to volunteer, and am so proud to be part of the team”
Christian Townend, Chief Executive of Newcastle GP Services (the GP Federation for the city) was part of the team running the vaccination centre, said: “I would like to thank all of the NHS staff and local volunteers who have managed to set this centre up so quickly and support our citywide rollout of the vaccine, it is great news after the year we have had to see our residents getting vaccinated.
"And it’s fantastic that we’ve been able to use the Eagles basketball centre to do this, it really shows everyone in our community coming together.”
People will be contacted by the NHS once they become eligible with information on how to receive the vaccine. For most people this will be a letter or a phone call from their GP.
Please do not contact the NHS to get an appointment until you hear from your GP. Information on the vaccine is available on here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/coronavirus-vaccine/
