From today, life-saving coronavirus jabs will also be delivered at Boots on Market Street, Halifax as the NHS in Calderdale accelerates the biggest vaccination programme in its history.

They join GP practices who have been working together to offer vaccinations from five shared centres across Calderdale since December.

Like all the vaccination services, community pharmacies are offering vaccinations by appointment only to people who have received an invitation from the national booking system or the GP practice.

At the moment, we are offering vaccinations to people aged 80 and over and care home residents, in line with the recommendations from the Joint Committee for Vaccinations & Immunisations and then will move to the other priority groups in descending order.

CCG Chair, Dr Steven Cleasby said:

“I’m really pleased that our efforts will now be further boosted by support of Boots. This will help us deliver the first vaccinate those at greatest risk from Covid-19 as quickly as possible.

“Pharmacists are hugely experienced in vaccinating patients and we’re obviously delighted that Halifax has one of the first pharmacies supporting the vaccine rollout. This will help us deliver first vaccinations to people who are at the greatest risk from Covid-19 as quickly as possible.

“We are busy contacting eligible patients but it is likely to take several weeks to cover everyone in the first priority groups so we are asking people to be patient and not to contact their GP practice, pharmacy or other NHS services about an appointment, as they are extremely busy at the moment”.

Council Leader, Cllr Tim Swift Said:

“The vaccination programme is progressing really well across Calderdale, thanks in no small part to the close partnership approach we have locally. The NHS, Council, local businesses and voluntary sector are all working hard in hand to support the historic effort to deliver the biggest vaccination programme in our history.

“There is cause for optimism but it’s also really important that people don’t become complacent because of the news about the vaccine roll-out. We all have a responsibility to do all we can to keep everyone as safe as possible in Calderdale. The single most important action we can all take to protect ourselves, our communities, the NHS and save lives is to stay at home.

“As more of our most vulnerable residents get vaccinated we have great hope about returning to some kind of normality this year. We also have a strong local test and trace system in Calderdale, which is performing better than the national and regional average”.