Boosters push: How, when and where to get your Covid vaccine in Harrogate district

Here is how and when the jabs are being made available in the Harrogate district.

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.

Currently, the Yorkshire Events Centre at Harrogate's Great Yorkshire Showground is the only walk-in site in the district after it reopened last Monday.

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.

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.

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.

This offer will be extended to all over-18s from Wednesday.

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.

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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.

The last time the hospital reported a death of a patient who died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid was on 6 December, with its death toll since the pandemic began standing at 200.

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.

It said it needs to recruit additional staff to support this goal and has urged anyone interested to contact them on [email protected]

By Jacob Webster, Local Democracy Reporter