A small local church in London has facilitated the immunisation of more than 8,000 people against Covid-19 as part of the UK's historic Covid-19 vaccination programme. St Paul’s Church in Thornton Heath has joined forces with eleven local GP surgeries to facilitate the jabs.
The church vaccination centre relies on an army of volunteers and medical staff to ensure injections are administered safely in a Covid secure environment.
The church's parish Administrator and Community Coordinator, Gill Borthwick, told Premier that the centre was doing "sterling work".
"They have done well over 8,500 vaccines so far," she said. "There are 11 doctor's surgeries working from the site and as well as working at the centre here in our hall they are also taking out from here to care homes, vulnerable people and housebound."
Borthwick added: "The lead up here is the Managing Partner at The Parchmore Group who is working long hours to make this and make such a success of it. But as she will be the first to say it is a team effort with all involved from the doctors to the volunteers marshalling here each day.
"We feel very privileged to be working with them and being a Church in the Community. The church has been receiving some lovely comments both to me direct and to our social media pages."
Theresa Chapman, Managing Partner at The Parchmore Group, told the Thornton Chronicle: "We are going to fight this virus and protect the vulnerable patients in our community.
“It’s been fantastic working together with all these practices. Patients have been immensely grateful and we are going to beat this virus.”
According to government data, just under 16 million people have now had their first vaccine injection to protect against Covid-19. Over half a million people have received their second dose.
On Wednesday head of the country's vaccine taskforce said that every adult in the UK could receive both doses of a coronavirus vaccine by August or September "or maybe sooner if we need to".
"We are confident within the vaccine taskforce now that the supply we're going to get will take to us to a position where we can vaccinate as many people as the UK wants to vaccinate," said Clive Dix, the interim chair of the taskforce.