Pop-up Covid vaccine clinic at Northumberland Pride Festival

Monday 23 August 2021

The Roving Vaccine Unit is back in the county to offer Covid-19 vaccinations at Northumberland’s annual Pride festival.

The mobile unit, provided by NHS Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the Village Surgery in Cramlington, is offering walk-in first and second doses of Pfizer and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines on Saturday August 28 at the People’s Park in Ashington between 11am and 6pm.

No appointments are needed but there must be at least an eight-week gap between first and second doses. There is a strict condition that anyone who wants to receive the jab does so before having any alcohol.

16 and 17-year-olds are welcome to attend the walk-in clinics but any eligible 12-to-15-year-olds will not be able to be vaccinated at these walk-in clinics. Instead, they will be contacted directly by their local GP practice to arrange an appointment at a specific site.

This year’s Northumberland Pride celebrations take place after the LGBT+ 5K and 10K races which take place on Friday August 27 and the festival is set to host live performances, market stalls, family activities, VIP area and fun fair.

Richard Hay, head of planning and operations at the CCG said: “We are delighted with the tremendous success of our vaccination programme in Northumberland. These pop-up clinics provide a fantastic opportunity for people who have yet to receive a vaccine to ‘grab a jab’ and help to protect themselves and others from the worst effects of Covid-19.

“We could not be prouder of the work our vaccination teams have done across the county, and also in setting up and operating our Roving Vaccine Unit. Not only has this helped us offer these life-saving vaccines to Northumberland’s most rural communities and areas of high deprivation; the unit has also been instrumental in supporting other parts of our region with their vaccine roll-out too.”

Northumberland continues to lead the way both in the region and across England with its vaccination roll-out. To date 89.9% of residents over 18 have had at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine with 82.8% having also received a second dose, the highest uptake rate for both doses across all of the 150 Upper Tier Local Authority (UTLA) areas in England.

Liz Morgan, director of public health for Northumberland County Council, said “It is more important than ever now that as many people as possible to come forward for both doses of the vaccine. Case rates are no longer falling so it remains really important to do everything we can to keep on top of this virus. Getting ourselves fully vaccinated is the best way we get back on the path to normality. “I want to say a huge thank you to everyone in the county for their patience, resilience and sheer determination to keep everyone safe over the past year.”

Appointments are still available to book via the online National Booking System or by phoning 119.