Birmingham mosque opens as Covid-19 vaccination centre

The Al Abbas mosque on Clifton Road is among the latest sites to come on board to deliver the jabs.

Doors at the centre opened this morning, with patients starting to receive their injections.

Dr Rizwan Alidina is a local GP who's helped set up the hub and said: "The significance of the venue is quite evident, particularly with the Muslim community being one of the communities with a lower uptake than we would otherwise have expected.

"However I think it's efforts like this which is keeping the Midlands at the top of the vaccination table at the moment."

There has been concern about some people from ethnic minority groups not taking up the Covid-19 vaccine because of false information about what it contains and how effective it is.

Dr Alidina, who's also a trustee of the Al Abbas mosque, said he hopes having the centre at the heart of the Muslim community will help combat that: "The vaccine is safe, the vaccine is effective and the vaccine is halal and permissible under all rulings of the religion."

Sheikh Nuru Mohammed is the mosque's imam and said they wanted to reassure the community: "We are saying a big NO to fake news, we are saying a big YES to vaccine.

"This is tried and tested by medical professionals and scientists, so there is nothing to worry about."

The hub is hoping to vaccinate between 300 and 500 per day once fully operational.

It comes as latest figures show 4.6 million people in the UK have now received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

The health secretary's also revealed the NHS is administering 200 jabs every minute.