London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Sep 19, 2025

Covid-19 vaccination staff see "low" numbers at Newcastle hub

Covid-19 vaccination staff see "low" numbers at Newcastle hub

A volunteer at Newcastle's Covid-19 vaccination hub says "staggeringly low" numbers of people are using the site.

Oskar Avery, who is also a councillor for Blakelaw, told a health committee the vaccine facilities at the Centre for Life were becoming a "dead zone".

It comes as figures show just over half of Newcastle's eligible population has received a booster dose so far, while only 75% have had their first jab.

Labour councillor Mr Avery called for the city to "get the momentum back".

The Centre for Life became the North East's first mass vaccination hub when the rollout started.

In January 2021 it saw people, including elderly people, queuing outside for an hour to get their jabs - with some people turning up more than an hour early for appointments.

'Dwindled away'


Professor Neil Watson, who leads the Covid-19 vaccination programme for the North East and North Cumbria, praised staff for their work over the past 13 months - working long hours with minimal time off work.

"Our service at the Centre for Life, like all our large vaccination centres across the region, are running on minimal staff because we know vaccination uptake is currently low," he said.

"Instead the majority of our workforce have been running mobile services and pop-up clinics in local communities and supporting school aged vaccination services, making it as easy as possible for people to get their vaccine."

The Local Democracy Reporting Service found the vaccination figures for Newcastle lagged behind the latest government figures to 16 February, which show more than 91% of people in the UK have had a first dose, 84.9% their second, and 65.9% have had a booster.

Mr Avery said: "I volunteer at the vaccination centre and we are now getting more over-21s who are in with their children than people coming for boosters or vaccinations.

A key worker waiting for her vaccination at the site in January 2021, ahead of a mass roll-out


"If it wasn't for the under-18s coming from the college and international students it would be a dead zone for most of the day, it really does seem to have dwindled away.

"We desperately need to get the momentum back. You say just over 50% of people [in Newcastle] have had their booster but there is almost no one coming in, they are staggeringly low numbers.

"Lots and lots of staff are sitting around with nothing to do, there are extended periods of people playing quizzes and reading books because there is literally no one there to be vaccinated."

Responding to Mr Avery's concerns, Lorna Smith, Newcastle's deputy public health boss, said a "fit for purpose" vaccine plan was being developed which was not based on "urgency or panic" but on communities.

She added: "What we don't want is staff who are very tired and overworked then being asked to resource a shift that actually isn't needed."


Inside Newcastle's Covid mass vaccination centre


Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
×