'Remarkable achievement' as quarter of West Yorkshire's adult population vaccinated

The leader of the West Yorkshire Vaccination programme has paid tribute to the region's GPs, pharmacists and NHS staff for their efforts.

The latest figures show that 531,052 people have now been vaccinated, around a quarter of the adult population in West Yorkshire.

Dr Phil Wood said he was delighted so many of those at greatest risk from Covid-19 had now been given a first dose of the vaccine and that this was a “remarkable achievement”.

He said: “We have been working round the clock to get people in West Yorkshire vaccinated as quickly as possible and the success of this is clear when you see how many people we have managed to vaccinate in just 10 weeks.

"This really is a remarkable achievement, particularly when NHS colleagues have also been dealing with such high levels of Covid-19 patients requiring hospital care.

"We are also very grateful to our partners in the local authorities and voluntary sector who have been supporting the vaccination programme and helping us to ensure as many people as possible are protected.”

Dr Wood said the rollout is continuing at pace across West Yorkshire.

Vaccinations are now being offered to people in the next cohorts - over 65s and people aged 16 and over with underlying health conditions and carers.

Eligible people will be contacted by their GP practice or the national booking system when it is their turn and are asked not to contact the NHS for an appointment.

Dr Wood added: “Please can we ask people not to contact their GP practice for an appointment, unless they are over 70 or registered as extremely clinically vulnerable.

"Everyone else should wait to be contacted – services are extremely busy and GP practices will not be able to book vaccination appointments unless you have been contacted by the NHS.

“We are also asking people to attend for their booked appointments at exactly the time they’re asked to, so that we can avoid queues in this cold weather, and to continue to follow all the guidance in place to control the virus. This is important even if you’ve had the vaccine as you may still be able to spread the disease so please think of others and do your bit to help save lives.”