The Western Health and Social Care Trust has this week celebrated one year of their Covid-19 vaccination centres being open, and staff have now given out more than 300,000 doses of the jab.
The mass vaccination centres opened on 21 December last year at Omagh Leisure Complex, the Lakeland Forum in Enniskillen and Foyle Arena in Derry.
85% of the vaccinations carried out by the Trust have taken place at the mass vaccination centres.
After being stood down in September, the centres reopened again this month in response to rising Covid-19 cases, and in order to bolster the booster programme.
Western Trust HR Director and Vaccination Programme Lead, Karen Hargan, has thanked local councils and their staff for the use of their facilities during the last year.
“The support which we have received from the Councils and their staff has been unwavering, and we are indebted to them for allowing us to avail of their facilities and to Council staff for supporting the programme on the ground,” Karen said.
“For us to have such available spaces allows us to deal with the volumes of people we need to in order to bring ambitious plans to fruition.
“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our amazing staff, who time and again over the past 12 months have been called upon to step up to the challenge.
“It is impossible to express our gratitude to them for the incredible work they have done, and continue to do.
“We continue to operate in a period of great uncertainty, but what we do know is that vaccination is saving lives and helping to reduce the number of people entering our hospitals as a result of Covid.”
Increased Covid-19 restrictions were announced by the Northern Ireland Executive on Wednesday, including the closure of nightclubs, while hospitality venues will have a table capacity with customers required to sit at a table.
“The scale of infection and the rate of transmission will be extremely challenging for our whole society and will result in significant pressures in hospitals, the Health and Social Care system and the wider workforce,” a statement from the Executive said.
“An intervention is therefore required alongside the vitally important booster vaccine programme.”
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