Harrogate and Knaresborough MP praises volunteers keeping district going during 2021
Andrew Jones told us community effort has been one of the few positives of the pandemic
The MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough has praised the volunteers that have kept the district running throughout 2021.
Andrew Jones has thanked the NHS staff and volunteers for coming together to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of people across the district with a first, second or third jab.
He said he is "overwhelmed" with how successful the vaccine programme has been.
"We have a year of two halves; jabs in the first half and jobs in the second half and now we're back with jabs again. It's been an incredibly tough year indeed, but it's a year which has continued to see the community pull together.
"The nation's response to the vaccine programme in the first half of the year was absolutely fantastic and that for me would be the highlight in the fact that we've produced and deployed a vaccine in record time and there were lots of people working around the clock to keep people safe.
"The vaccines have been able to save lives and allow us to resume a greater level of our freedoms. We should recognise, applaud and thank those who've helped get us to this point."
Thousands of people have volunteered delivering food parcels and prescriptions and making sure the vaccine centres across the district run smoothly.
Over 350,000 first, second and third doses have been given across Harrogate district since the programme started at the end of 2020.