Covid: Regional vaccine clinics to be held to boost take-up

Clinics will be held in Ramsey, Port Erin and Peel, and at UCM next week

Pop-up Covid-19 vaccination clinics around the Isle of Man will help people who are unable to get to Douglas to get a booster, the health minister said.

Lawrie Hopper said some people had found it difficult to get to the central vaccination hub in the town during working hours.

Almost 11,000 people had received a jab in the run up to the new year but there had since been a "slow down", he said.

Walk-in clinics will now be held in Ramsey, Peel and Port Erin next week.

Mr Hooper said: "Where we're at now is we've got that core of people who might find it difficult to get to Douglas or might be less willing to travel, and really we're just trying different ways to be accessible to people."

Regional clinics will be held at Ramsey District Cottage Hospital on 25 January, Thie Rosien in Port Erin on 27 January, and the Western Wellbeing Centre in Peel on 29 January.

'Different approach'

A clinic will also be held at University College Isle of Man for students and staff on 26 January.

Mr Hooper said there would be an assessment of the take-up at the regional clinics "before we decide what the next step is".

"Obviously at some point the vaccine rollout is going to have to become more business as usual, it'll have to be just something else that we do."

"We can't keep a vaccine hub forever," he said, adding: "At some point we're going to have to turn that off and change to a different approach entirely."

In addition to the booster clinics, parents of children aged between five and 11 who are vulnerable or live with an immunosuppressed person can now register them for a lower dose of the vaccine.