Storm Arwen: Jab team deliver Covid boosters by torchlight

Volunteers administering Covid booster jabs worked by phone torchlight during the power cut in Easingwold

A Covid jab team delivered 670 booster vaccinations in North Yorkshire despite being hampered by a day-long power cut caused by Storm Arwen.

Volunteers said the inoculations were delivered "by the light of our phone torches" for eight hours at the Galtres Centre in Easingwold on Saturday.

A generator was used to power a fridge maintaining the right temperature to store the Pfizer vaccines.

The team said they hoped the snow would go before their next clinic on Sunday.

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Millfield Surgery, a GP practice serving Easingwold, thanked people for coming despite the bad weather and said the team had "pulled out all the stops" to keep the roll-out of Covid booster jabs going.

Lorraine Boyd, clinical and operation lead at the Galtres Centre vaccination hub, said the lights went off at 10:00 GMT, with a busy schedule of jab bookings in place until 18:00.

"We already had people sat at the vaccination stations when the power went, immediately people fished their phones out of their pockets, switched the torches on and carried on as if nothing had happened," she said.

"Within 20 minutes to half an hour the temperature starts to rise and the vaccine can all be wasted, so we got a generator sorted to get the vaccine fridge back under control."

A generator powered a fridge used to store the vaccines, with a local cafe distributing hot drinks to volunteers and vaccine recipients

Announcements were made on BBC Radio York telling those with appointments to still come along despite the lack of power.

Some people even brought along more generators, torches and portable lighting to help keep the vaccination hub going.

'Fighting spirit'

Among those being vaccinated was Kevin Hollinrake, Conservative MP for Thirsk and Malton, who tweeted: "Fantastic fighting spirit at the Galtres Centre, Easingwold today using torches and generators to make sure the booster jab programme show goes on, including mine."

Patient data recording was gathered on paper rather than on laptops, with the power returning just as the volunteers were delivering the final vaccinations of the day at 18:00.

Ms Boyd added: "It never occurred to us that we might cancel, but we worried that people might not turn up.

"It was one of the most memorable clinics without question, we're a real 'can do' group of people - we don't think about what can't be done, we just think about how we can do it."

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