‘Community pop-up vaccine clinics work best’ says Doncaster councillor as just under 1,000 people get jabbed in single day

A councillor has said that pop-up vaccine clinics in Doncaster are one of the best ways in reaching people to get their Covid-19 after nearly 1,000 people turned up on a single day.
Jonathan Ellis and Natasha Mercier, DMBC Covid Team members, pictured with Ross Jones, Mayor of Doncaster and Councillor Majid Khan at the Jamia Mosque, which hosted a Pop-up first dose vaccination clinic. Picture: Marie CaleyJonathan Ellis and Natasha Mercier, DMBC Covid Team members, pictured with Ross Jones, Mayor of Doncaster and Councillor Majid Khan at the Jamia Mosque, which hosted a Pop-up first dose vaccination clinic. Picture: Marie Caley
Jonathan Ellis and Natasha Mercier, DMBC Covid Team members, pictured with Ross Jones, Mayor of Doncaster and Councillor Majid Khan at the Jamia Mosque, which hosted a Pop-up first dose vaccination clinic. Picture: Marie Caley

Coun Majid Khan made the comments after helping organise the vaccine clinic session at Jamia Mosque in Hyde Park on Friday (May 21). The event invited anyone over the age of 18 to come and get a jab.

He said the response was ‘absolutely phenomenal’ and had over 950 people turn up to get their first dose of the Pfizer or Oxford/AstraZeneca jab.

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The Bessacarr councillor said there were a number older people who came for a jab who didn’t initially respond to the call for a vaccine earlier in the year.

Emma Smith, Nurse Practitioner, pictured administering first dose vaccinations at Jamia Mosque pop-up clinic. Picture: Marie CaleyEmma Smith, Nurse Practitioner, pictured administering first dose vaccinations at Jamia Mosque pop-up clinic. Picture: Marie Caley
Emma Smith, Nurse Practitioner, pictured administering first dose vaccinations at Jamia Mosque pop-up clinic. Picture: Marie Caley

More planned pop-up clinics are planned for later in the year and Coun Khan said this model was very effective in getting people vaccinated.

People were said to be still queuing past the 6pm finish and that volunteers had to start turning people away because demand was that high.

Coun Khan thanked the mosque, Doncaster NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, medical staff and director of public health Dr Rupert Suckling for getting the event up and running.

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“The response was absolutely phenomenal. We vaccinated well over 950 people,” Coun Khan said.

“People definitely really want to get in and get vaccinated, and it just goes to show that this community based pop-up clinic model works.

“This is the third one that we’ve run now and each clinic has seen an increase in the number of people coming to get a jab.

“The first clinic that we ran, we had around 350 to 400 people, the second, we had around 800 people and this latest one was just under 1,000.”

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Coun Khan added that he was ‘really surprised’ at the ‘amount of elderly people’ who turned up for their first jab and said this community model was sometimes a better way of reaching people who might be apprehensive at first.

“In this community based model, I want to see this replicated elsewhere so we can really get into communities and even have one or two stations running vaccines stations,” he said.

“We had our first person queuing up at 7:20am even though the clinic didn’t open till 8am. We also had people arriving until the close at 6pm but we then had to start turning people away and we didn’t finish until 715pm.

“It just shows how much people do want to get vaccinated and that this model does work.”

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