A MASS Covid-19 vaccination centre that could offer the jab to hundreds of people a day and will be available to anyone living within a 45-minute drive will be opened in Runwell, Wickford, tomorrow (Monday, 18 January).

The new centre is one of 10 new super hubs announced by the Government this weekend and is the first of its kind in Essex. Residents in Thurrock who have been directed to a mass centre have had to go to the London excel, Epsom racecourse of Stevenage.

The centre at Wickford comes in addition to the local sites already in operation at Chadwell St Mary and Stifford Clays Health Centres and at Basildon & Thurrock Hospital.

It will be in The Lodge in Lodge Approach, Runwell and has been set up in the NHS trust offices there. The building is located in area close to entrance to the new St Luke's Park Countryside homes development, which was built on land surrounding the former Runwell Hospital.

The vaccination programme is currently open to priority groups including the over-80s, care workers and NHS frontline staff. Health chiefs have asked members of the public to wait to be invited for their jab.

The ground floor of the Essex Partnership University NHS Trust (EPUNFT) has been converted to create the centre and it is understood that some NHS frontline staff have been receiving the jab there this weekend.

For further information about the vaccine click here.

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