Lincolnshire coronavirus: ‘Big weekend’ of vaccination activity to include more walk-in opportunities

Lincolnshire will be playing its part in the ‘big weekend’ and aims to make vaccines easily and readily available, by offering a number of walk-in services, where appointments will not be required, during the weekend.

The first of these will be held at The Arboretum, Lincoln (Monks Road entrance), where a mobile unit will offer Pfizer walk-in vaccinations, both first and second doses, on a ‘first come, first served’ basis between 12pm-3pm on Saturday June 26, to anyone aged 18 or over who is eligible.

On Sunday June 27, Newlands Pharmacy, Lincoln, will be offering Pfizer walk-in vaccinations on a ‘first come, first served’ basis between 10am-2pm, to anyone 18 or over who is eligible, including both first and second doses.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the Storehouse in Skegness will also be providing walk-in Pfizer vaccinations between 8.30am-5pm using Pfizer for both first and second doses, on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.

In addition to this, both of the county’s Mass Vaccination Centres (MVC) will offer vaccinations on a walk-in basis on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The PRSA MVC in Boston will offer walk-ins between 8am-7pm using both AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines (in line with JCVI guidance those aged 40 and over will receive either vaccine, however, there will be no individual choice of vaccine) and those aged 39 and under will be offered Pfizer. The MVC at the Lincolnshire Showground will offer AstraZeneca vaccinations on a walk-in basis to people in cohorts 1-10 (aged 40 and over) between 8am-7pm.

“We are thrilled with the uptake of the covid vaccination so far in Lincolnshire, and after seven months of vaccinating hundreds of thousands of people across the county we are nearly there,” comments Rebecca Neno, Deputy Chief Nurse, at NHS Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group. “We are well on track to have offered everyone eligible a vaccination by July 19, however, there are some people who might not have taken up the offer of a vaccination to-date, and the walk-ins offer a great opportunity to get a first vaccination or bring forwards your second vaccination if it is eight weeks or more since your first vaccination.

“We expect the walk in sessions to be busy so please do be patient if you have to wait a few minutes. There is no requirement to be registered with a GP or to have an NHS number to attend, however, if you do have an NHS number and have it to hand this can speed up the process,” she said.

“In addition to the walk-ins, we have good availability for vaccination pre-booked appointments across the county at our Mass Vaccination Centres at PRSA, Boston, and at the Lincolnshire Showground, as well as at pharmacies in Lincoln and Boston, and also at the Meres Local Vaccination Centre in Grantham. My key message to people is it’s not too late, there is still chance to get vaccinated, and please make sure you get vaccinated twice to gain the maximum protection,” adds Rebecca.

As the county’s medical staff embark upon the ‘big weekend’, the Mass Vaccination Centre at the Lincolnshire Showground will celebrate giving its 100,000th vaccination - just four months since the centre opened and less than two months since it hit 50,000 vaccinations.

“This is a huge achievement for Terry Vine and his team at the Showground MVC, and I would like to congratulate them and all of my colleagues across the county for what they have achieved and what they continue to achieve. Without them we wouldn’t be entering the final sprint part of the vaccination programme in such a good place,” concludes Rebecca.

You can find your NHS number online here www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/online-services/find-nhs-number/ and please only attend if you are eligible – click the following link for more information on eligibility https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/coronavirus-vaccine/

More than three in five adults in the UK have received a second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

With 75,188,795 million doses administered in total, 43,448,680 million people across the UK have now been vaccinated with a first dose (82.5%), while 31,740,115 million people have had both doses (60.3%).

Recent analysis by Public Health England (PHE) shows that COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective against hospitalisation from the Delta (B.1.61.2) variant. The analysis suggests the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 96% effective and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is 92% effective against hospitalisation after both doses.

The government is on track to offer a first dose to all adults by July 19, two weeks earlier than planned.

By July 19, all those aged 40 and over and the clinically extremely vulnerable, who received their first dose by mid-May, will have been offered their second dose.

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: “The vaccination team have been working incredibly hard to provide people with much-needed protection from this life-threatening disease.

“With more and more evidence emerging on just how effective two doses of our vaccines are in protecting against the Delta variant, it’s great to see three in five adults have been double jabbed, so we’re well on our way to the whole country getting the fullest possible protection.

“We’re so close now to ensuring the entire adult population is protected.”

The successful vaccination programme is weakening the link between cases and hospitalisations. The latest evidence shows that two doses are needed to provide effective protection against the Delta variant.

To ensure people have the fullest possible protection against COVID-19, second doses for all over 40s will be accelerated by reducing the dosing interval from 12 weeks to eight weeks.

Vaccinated people are far less likely to get COVID-19 with symptoms. Vaccinated people are even more unlikely to get serious COVID-19, to be admitted to hospital, or to die from it and there is growing evidence that they are less likely to pass the virus to others, says the NHS and PHE.