The Barnsley booster vaccination programme has seen a record response but health and care leaders worry others may not realise the importance of coming forward as soon as possible.
Latest Barnsley figures show that more than eight in ten eligible people, over the age of 50, have now had their booster vaccine, with over 108,000 Barnsley people in total now having had theirs. However, health and care bosses are now urging eligible people, including those under 50, to come forward and get their booster over this next week.
The walk-in booster site at the Metrodome has been really successful in its first week of opening giving people the opportunity to walk straight in, with no queues. Despite the success, figures show that there are still around 44,000 Barnsley people under 50 who are eligible but haven’t come forward for their booster yet.
Mark Brooks, interim chief executive for South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust who run the borough’s community and mental health services said: “Earlier in the year we saw a tremendous take up of the Coronavirus vaccine, with people coming out to have two doses to protect themselves and others. Now is the time to step up again and book your booster. Having the two vaccine doses as well as the booster is the best way of protecting you and those around you against the new Omicron variant. So if you are eligible please book your booster as soon as you can.”
Andrea Parkin, lead nurse for the Barnsley NHS GP vaccination programme said: “We’ve got a fantastic set up here at the Metrodome. Staff have been brilliant and come forward to work extra shifts and make sure we can get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible. This is a race against time. We’ve been vaccinating between 3,500 to 4,000 people across Barnsley sites every day over this past week so people are definitely keen to get it.
“We are worried though that some people might not have realised how important the booster is and why we need them to come forward now. We’re asking anyone who perhaps wanted to wait until after Christmas day, or hadn’t got round to it yet, to either come down to the Metrodome, or book into one of the other sites in Barnsley as soon as they can.”
The booster vaccine is available three months after your 2nd dose. You cannot get your booster if you have had a positive COVID-19 test in the past 28 days.
Barnsley Hospital Chief Executive Dr Richard Jenkins said: ”Getting your booster now is vitally important. We’re really concerned that if Barnsley follows the trend that London is seeing now, we will very quickly have high levels of staff absences as they get the new Omicron variant or have to isolate due to contacts. We are particularly asking people in their 20s, 30s and 40s to come forward and get their booster in December. We need to be as ahead of the trend as possible.”
Julia Burrows, Director of Public Health Barnsley said: “We’ve been following the impact of the Omicron variant in other areas of the country extremely closely. We are expecting to see the real impact of it arrive here in Barnsley in a couple of weeks’ time and so we need people to act now and get their booster. This new variant is very good at spreading quickly and two doses on their own will not be good enough, all adults need to get a boost as soon as they are eligible.
“If we don’t do as much as we can now, we’ll all end up seeing a much larger impact of the new variant, sadly. This might be by getting ill yourself, or by more people such as health and care staff and those people keeping a range of business going, testing positive and needing to stay at home. Areas like London are already seeing health and care staff absences grow and nobody wants that. We need to do as much as we can to reduce the amount of Omicron circulating in our communities.”
The walk-in at the Metrodome will only be open for three more days, Monday 27, Tuesday 28 and Wednesday 29 December from 10am to 8pm. Other vaccine sites continue to be available.