AS the Covid-19 vaccination programme continues we caught up with the man in charge of sites across Basingstoke.

Dr Tim Cooper is the clinical lead for North Hampshire's vaccine rollout and has been leading teams as they vaccinate residents across Basingstoke.

He said that he is pleased with how the vaccination programme is going so far.

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He said: “In general it has gone really well so obviously we had a huge amount of uptake and a lot of capacity put on before Christmas, we got through incredible numbers. I think locally we are almost up to 65 per cent of the adult population being boosted so really good volumes and good numbers.

“So, what we have seen now as we move into the New Year is high rates of infection. We have got older people who are not coming to appointments because either they are unwell or they have changed their mind so certainly the numbers we have got have dropped quite substantially. We can see this if we compare it to the period before Christmas, which is a shame but inevitable.”

On Monday (January 17) 16 and 17-year-olds became eligible for their top-up dose and could book through the national booking service as part of the latest phase of the vaccine programme.

Tim added: “We have got capacity available so we are trying to get more and more 16 and 17-year-olds in for their boosters, which has been made available through the national booking service.

“We know that the vaccine is one of the key things that will allow us to get back to normal quicker. The fact that we have been able to hold off restrictions and people have been very sensible with their approach means people have been able to have a more normal Christmas and I think that’s down to the success of the vaccination programme."

As we start the New Year Tim is taking a slightly different approach.

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“The goals of the programme based at Jameson House really is to try and focus on the areas of lower uptake. We are working with our teams in public health to work out where vaccination uptake isn’t as high as in other areas. We are then trying to understand why that is and make an increased offer to those patients and make sure there is no reason why they can’t get access,” he told The Gazette.

The main vaccination centre at Jameson House is still open but Tim said it is likely to see reduced hours as other pop-up sites open.

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