Covid warnings continue as cases remain high in Tees Valley following end of restrictions

As the spring vaccination booster cmapaign gets into gear, the public have been urged to continue taking the pandemic seriously.

And NHS chiefs intend to keep pushing a message of vigilance against the disease, as they maintain their offer of jabs for anyone eligible to receive one.

Sue Greaves, head of strategy and commissioning for primary care at Tees Valley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said: “There were no branch closures, no Covid related delegated decisions made, nothing to report on those areas.

“The community pharmacy and vaccination centre offer, alongside the primary care network provision, offers a robust vaccination offer to all the cohorts across the Tees Valley.”

Greaves was speaking at Tuesday’s (April 19) meeting of the CCG’s Primary Care Commissioning Committee, which also heard warnings Covid-19 continues to impact hospitals and medical services

Dr David Emerton, the panel’s secondary care specialist, said: “We still actually have got quite a lot of admissions both in North Tees and South Tees hospitals at the moment of covid positive people, and the actual rate in the area is still high.”

The latest caution from clinicians comes despite the removal of Covid-19 restrictions in England earlier this year.

Phase 4 of the vaccination programme went live at the start of April, aiming for all eligible patients to receive a spring booster six months after their last dose.

This includes older adult care home residents, over 75s and severely immunosuppressed over 12 years of age.

It also aims to ensure a two dose vaccination programme is offered to all 5-11 year old children.

The virtual meeting also heard “hot clinics” in the area, used to examine patients experiencing Covid-19 symptoms, are not due to be stood down before September, to allow them to continue to provide care to those hit by the virus.

However, Mrs Greaves added: “If the number of covid patients requiring hot clinic capacity, if that tails off, then it would be silly to continue running those clinics with no patients attending.”

She added any decision to do this would be brought back before the committee.