Had covid in the last 28 days in Hartlepool? This is why you may soon receive a text message

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The Tees Valley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is behind the plans which will see primary care networks send mobile phone texts to patients on GP surgery books.

Any adult who has tested positive for coronavirus cannot be jabbed within 28 days or three months for young people aged 12 to 15 years old.

This is thought to be one reason why uptake of the vaccine hasn’t been as high as public health chiefs would like, amid a surge in covid-19 cases last month and over Christmas and New Year caused by the omicron variant.

People in Hartlepool who have recently had Covid-19 will shortly receive text messages inviting them to be jabbed.

While 1.3m people across the region have received a booster shot, there remains nearly a quarter-of-million people living in the Tees Valley (247,000) who haven’t been jabbed at all, whether first, second or booster dose, despite being eligible.

Thousands more walk-in vaccination appointments were recently made available on Teesside via the likes of GP surgeries, community chemists, vaccination centres and “pop up” vaccination buses.

But Dr Janet Walker, the medical director of the CCG, which commissions health services in Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton, admitted the extra capacity “wasn’t met by demand from the public”.

Referring to the text message move, she said: “Plans are in place to proactively text patients so that when they are through their 28 day period, they will receive a text to remind them that they are now eligible for the dose they are due and encourage them to come forward.”