New Covid vaccination centre at BIC will be able to give 9,000 jabs a week

A REGIONAL vaccination clinic able to deliver thousands of Covid-19 jabs every week has been set up at Bournemouth International Centre.

People from across Dorset, starting with the most vulnerable, will be contacted for an appointment to receive the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine at the new site which opened today (Monday).

The centre is one of 17 set up in the UK to relieve the pressure on doctors’ surgeries and hospitals during the vaccination program.

The BIC hub will be open 8am-8pm, seven days a week, and is capable of delivering 1,300 jabs a day – 9,000 a week – at six vaccination stations when fully operational.

Each attendee will be health-checked and have a pre-vaccination assessment before having the jab. The whole process should take well under an hour.

People are urged not to turn up early for their appointments, which they can make online or by phone.

Professor Stephen Powis, NHS England’s medical director, said: “The vaccination programme has got off to a strong start with our hard-working staff delivering more than 3-million vaccinations while also dealing with the latest wave of coronavirus infections.

“This is accelerating as more vaccine supplies come on stream with more sites opening all the time so that we can protect as many people as swiftly as possible.

“The rapid progress we have already made is testament to NHS staff who are pulling out all the stops to vaccinate the most vulnerable while caring for so many people who are seriously ill with Covid.”

Those who do not want to travel to the BIC can choose to receive their jabs at their local doctors’ surgery or hospital.