A ‘vaccine van’ will be delivering the Covid-19 jab on-the-go to residents in Tameside without needing an appointment.
The van will be visiting a ‘variety’ of locations in June and July to make it easier for people living in Tameside and Glossop to get the vaccine, and get to the ‘heart of communities’.
It will be targeting areas with the least vaccine take-up to provide protection to as many people as possible, and prevent the risk of the virus and variants spreading.
The van will first appear at Ashton Market Square on Friday, June 11 and Saturday, June 12 between 10am and 4pm.
This will mean that that people who live nearby, or are simply out shopping or using the facilities in the area can drop in to get their first vaccination.
The plan is that it will then visit different locations within Ashton, Denton, Hyde, Stalybridge and Glossop.
Cabinet member for population health, Councillor Eleanor Wills, said: “I’m delighted that the vaccine van will be touring Tameside and Glossop to deliver vaccinations to where people will be out and about, making it easy, quick and simple for our residents to get their life-saving jab.
“Thank you to everyone involved who has made this possible and please, if you’ve not yet had your vaccine, visit these pop-up clinics so that we can protect as many people as possible.
“Our vaccination programme has been a huge success with well over 200,000 doses given out but we want to do even better.”
NHS Tameside and Glossop Clinical Commissioning Group co-chairs Dr Asad Ali and Dr Ashwin Ramachandra added that a team of ‘friendly professionals and community volunteers’ would be on hand to support people through the process of having their vaccine.
“We’d urge everyone to have their vaccination,” they said.
“Every single vaccine helps protect you and others and reduces transmission and the risk of variants, stopping the spread of coronavirus and helping us get back to normal.”
A time slot can be booked in advance at www.tamesideandglossop.nhsvaccinations.co.uk or by calling your GP practice, and the schedule for the van’s visits is available at www.tameside.gov.uk/covidvaccine.
