Scarborough Covid: Just seven coronavirus patients remain at Scarborough Hospital as booster jab rollout begins

As of yesterday, there were 131 Covid-positive patients in North Yorkshire’s hospitals, a rise of nine on this time last week.

The number of patients in intensive care, however, has dropped by five to 21.

In an update given to the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum today Amanda Bloor, the accountable officer for the North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group said that the number of patients at Scarborough Hospital had remained at seven.

Mrs Bloor also outlined the next steps for the vaccination booster program.

She said: “The booster program has now been officially approved by NHS England [last Friday] and we were already planning for this and have now started to invite eligible cohorts immediately so some people will be receiving invitations for that with immediate effect.”

The boosters will be delivered at GP practices and at community pharmacies.

The forum also heard from Dr Victoria Turner, public health consultant at North Yorkshire County Council, that the William Street coach park testing site in Scarborough will be remaining in place for as long as it is needed.

Dr Turner said: “The next official review for [William Street] is at the end of the month, but we have got local agreement that it can stay in place for as long as it is needed so for the time being I foresee it being in place as long as having local testing sites is a national option open to us.”