A NEW mass vaccination centre for south Essex is opening today as the NHS ramps up delivery of Covid-19 jabs in our communities.

Runnymede Hall in Kiln Road, Thundersley will be the 14th large vaccination hub opened by Essex Partnership Trust in the last nine weeks.

It follows large-scale centres at the Cliffs Pavilion in Westcliff, the Mill Hall in Rayleigh and the NHS offices in Runwell.

The new centre is open after the NHS launched a renewed drive to protect the vulnerable with underlying conditions such as diabetes and some forms of cancer. GPs have already been inviting those with the conditions from their patient lists, but the NHS is now texting them with a link enabling them to arrange a jab at a vaccination centre or pharmacy-led service at a touch of a button.

Melissa Dowdeswell, the trust’s operational director for the vaccination programme across mid and south Essex, said: “We are delighted to be able to open another vaccination centre in Essex - Runnymede Hall offers our local community more choice at a time as more vaccine supplies come online.

“Many thanks to all my colleagues and volunteers whose amazing dedication has made the rollout of our programme such a success.”

If people prefer not to travel to a vaccination centre or pharmacy-led site, they can choose to wait to be invited by a local GP-led service.

NHS staff are also visiting those who are housebound and unable to travel to their local service or vaccination centre.

Runnymede Hall will be offering vaccinations to all those in the eligible groups including people aged 55 and over and unpaid carers.

Jeffrey Stanley, leader of Castle Point Council, said: “We welcome the new vaccination centre at Runnymede Hall.

“This will be so valuable in ensuring that vaccinations can be delivered to our community conveniently and quickly.

“We are pleased to have assisted our partners in the NHS in getting this vaccination centre up and running here in Castle Point.”

Text messages are being sent using the Government’s secure Notify service and will show as being sent from NHSvaccine.

The NHS is urging people only to come to the vaccination centre if they have a booked appointment and to arrive no more than five minutes before their booking.