Covid MP thanks jab hubs

Arundel and South Downs MP Andrew Griffith visited three vaccination centres last week to personally thank volunteers and staff who are part of the local rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine.

As the Minister for Covid Vaccine Deployment Nadhim Zahawi MP announced that three quarters of all adults have received both doses of their coronavirus vaccine, the three centres combined had delivered a total of 89,000 doses.

The Glebe Surgery, Storrington, had administered 34,000 doses, Pulborough Medical Group (pictured) 25,000 doses and Angmering Vaccination Clinic more than 30,000 doses, Mr Griffith said.

This excludes Henfield

Medical Centre – whom Mr Griffith said he would thank on a future occasion – and the many clinics which have vaccinated local residents but which fall into different parliamentary constituencies.

During his visits last Wednesday, Andrew met with GPs, vaccinators, community volunteers and clinical leaders to discuss the challenges of such a large-scale and long-running programme.

He also saw some of the first of the 16-17 age cohort arriving to be vaccinated after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised that all 16 and 17 year olds should receive the PfizerBioNTech vaccine.

The NHS has confirmed it will contact those eligible directly but all vaccine centres encouraged young people to come forward as soon as possible.

Mr Griffith said:“It was a privilege to meet with vaccination heroes. They have worked long hours and overcome unique challenges over many months now to achieve such a high level of vaccination across West Sussex. To meet the teams who’ve delivered getting on for 100,000 doses really is remarkable. All of the health professionals I met emphasised how important it is that anyone who has not yet had the vaccine including those aged 16 and 17 does so. It’s still a nasty virus which is hospitalising many.”