Walk-in Covid booster vaccinations available until Christmas Eve at Great Yorkshire Showground
It's to help with the rollout of the booster programme.
Last updated 13th Dec 2021
The Yorkshire Events Centre at Harrogate’s Great Yorkshire Showground is offering walk-in booster Covid vaccinations until Christmas Eve.
The site initially planned to stay open until 22 December, but it is now being kept open into the New Year as the booster rollout is accelerated.
Currently, it is the only walk-in site in the district after it reopened last Monday.
As of today, all over-18s who have had their second dose of a vaccine at least three months ago can now get their third at a walk-in centre.
Walk-ins are available at the site between 9am and 4pm up until 23 December, as well as between 9am and 11.30am on Christmas Eve.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson last night announced that every adult in Britain will be offered a Covid booster jab by the end of December as he warned there was a “tidal wave of Omicron coming”.
Appointment-based vaccines are available through the NHS booking service for all over-30s who have had their second dose of a vaccine at least three months ago.
Those who choose to book will be given appointments at either the Yorkshire Event Centre, Knaresborough’s Chain Lane pharmacy, Ripon Racecourse or other pharmacy sites across the district.
The rollout is being extended after data released on Friday showed that vaccine protection against symptomatic infection was substantially reduced against the Omicron varient with two doses, but a third dose boosted protection up to over 70%
First and second doses were previously delivered in age priority, but now this has been scrapped it is likely to lead to a scramble of people hoping to get vaccinated.
The Department of Health and Social Care said over 100,000 people have tried to book vaccine appointments this morning, causing the online booking system to crash.
This comes after warnings that Omicron is spreading rapidly, although it has not yet had an impact on Harrogate’s weekly infection rate which has fallen to 407 cases per 100,000 people.
The number of Covid patients at Harrogate District Hospital has also fallen from 25 to eight over the last month.
A spokesperson for the NHS North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group, which is leading on the vaccine rollout, said it is “working around the clock” to open more vaccination sites.