Middlesbrough street clinics set up as cases soar

Vaccination clinics are being set up in Middlesbrough streets amid a 400% rise in Covid cases in recent weeks.

Middlesbrough Council said staff would be knocking on doors to encourage uptake after worries almost 5,000 over-50s had not had a vaccine.

Latest government figures revealed there were 156 cases per 100,000 of the town’s population as of Monday – up from 28 per 100,000 earlier this month.

The council also said 16,000 adults in the town had only had one jab.

Council chief executive Tony Parkinson told a meeting of the council’s overview and scrutiny board: “We’ve had something like a 400% increase over the last three weeks – that follows the same pattern we’ve seen in places like Bolton.

“It looks like we’re heading into a third spike of some sort.” 

Councillors were told the authority was working with GP practices to get lists of names before knocking on doors in the town, which has a total population of about 140,400.

Mr Parkinson added: “We’ll literally knock on someone’s door if they haven’t been vaccinated, explain what’s happening in the town, what the benefits are, and ask them to book in for a vaccine at the end of their street.

“We’ll go really local to crack this 16,000 who haven’t had their second dose.

“If this spike continues, they’re the people most likely to be affected.”

South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust confirmed 14 Covid patients were currently being treated at its hospital – four of whom were receiving critical care.

Last week there were 12 patients in hospitals in the area with the virus.