Calls for mass vaccine centre closer to Hartlepool as site announced for Darlington

Metro mayor Ben Houchen has had a number of meetings with Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi to try to see the creation of a local centre for people to get the jab.

Mayor Houchen has suggested using Middlesbrough Football Club’s Riverside Stadium.

The mayor said he has been pushing the Government for a local site since the roll out of the vaccination programme in late December.

He has renewed the calls for a mass vaccination centre on Teesside after news that one will open in Darlington next week.

Related story: Buses laid on to take Hartlepool home care workers to hospital for Covid jabs

Mayor Houchen said: “I’m pleased that the Darlington vaccination centre will be opening very soon, but we still need a centre in Teesside that’s why in the last week I’ve had a number of meetings with Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi to push the case for getting a centre up a running in Teesside as quickly as possible.

“The NHS and our Armed Forces have done an absolutely phenomenal job across Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool to get all of the over-70s and the extremely vulnerable vaccinated.

"But, with the Government now having an even more ambitious jab target of giving every adult in the country their first coronavirus vaccine shot by July 31 even more centres will be needed.

“With hundreds of thousands of jabs now needing to be administered in a very short period of time, now is the right time for a dedicated mass vaccination centre to be opened in Teesside.”

So far, residents in Hartlepool and surrounding area have received the vaccine from hubs at local hospitals, GP surgeries, clinics including at Hartlepool Town Hall Theatre and two high street pharmacies.

Mayor Houchen added: “Teesside smashed every target in the first phase of the vaccine rollout, becoming the quickest region to give the jab to all over 80s, and with a new jab centre we can do the same again with the wider population.”

Hartlepool recorded 22 new cases of the virus on Wednesday, February 24, but no new deaths within the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust.

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