Young people between 18 and 29 are being urged to get their Covid-19 vaccination as a pop-up grab-a-jab clinic is held in Greenhead Park this weekend.
Anyone over the age of 18 can call into the vaccination van in the park without an appointment. The pop-up is open from 12noon to 7pm on both Saturday and Sunday.
Infections continue to rise across Kirklees with an increase of 46% over the last seven days. The increase last week was 61%.
There are now 339 cases per 100,000 of population but, despite the sharp increase locally, Kirklees only ranks 55th out of 149 local authorities and has the lowest rate in West Yorkshire.
Kirklees Council’s director of public health, Rachel Spencer-Henshall, reported the figures to the council’s Health and Wellbeing Board.
She said there had been no deaths in local hospitals among patients who had tested positive for Covid within the last 28 days since early June.
The Covid hotspot areas in Kirklees over the last week were Holmfirth, New Mill, Hepworth, Birstall and Kirkheaton.
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Ms Spencer-Henshall said the highest number of cases were among young people aged between 10 and 19, though cases had risen across all age groups.
“Vaccinations are open to everyone over the age of 18 and we need to encourage 18 and 19-year-olds to have the vaccination along with 20-29-year-olds,” she said.
“We have a pop-up in Greenhead Park this weekend and we are working with a number of sports clubs to increase uptake.
“Anecdotally uptake of the vaccine in the younger population is better among women than men so getting young men to come forward is important to ensure we get herd immunity.”
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