This is how many second doses of Covid vaccine have been given in Doncaster

Director of strategy and delivery at Doncaster Clinical Commissioning Group, Anthony Fitzgerald, told the organisation’s board of governors that there have now been over 22,000 second doses given in the borough.

The figure is revealed just days after Doncaster World War Two veteran, 101-year-old Fred Adamson, revealed he had been given his second jab at Dearne Valley Leisure Centre, and passed on his thanks to the team carrying out the work.

He also told the meeting that there have been 150,000 people who have received at least one jab, which represents 60 per cent of Doncaster’s adult population.

Health bosses are now working to get hard to reach groups to take the vaccine.

Mr Fitzgerald said: “We are trying to understand why people don’t come forward. We think it is about three factors – confidence, convenience, and issues of complacency.

"We’re trying to understand which people fall under, and try to retrospectively work to encourage people who have not had the vaccine to come forward, and look at prospectively working proactively with people and community leaders to dispel any myths.”

He said they had already trialled sessions at religious venues.

He said the vaccination programme was continuing at a pace, and health bosses felt confident of reaching the April 15 target for everyone in the first nine priority groups having been offered their first jab.

CCG chairman David Crichton said he had made a video this week encouraging over 50s who had not yet had the vaccine to come forward by ringing 119 or contacting their doctor. He said it was important not to be complacent about the vaccinations.

He added: “We have put staff to good use phoning people up. We accept that some people may make a conscious decision not to have the vaccine, but there are people we have not spoken to so we are going the extra length.”

Doncaster started its vaccination programme on December 15, when over 80s were offered jabs for the first time.

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