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Covid-19: Aylesbury cinema and Biggleswade pharmacy used in vaccine roll-out

BBC Patients queue for vaccine at the Weatherley Centre, BiggledwadeBBC
Residents in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, were vaccinated at The Weatherley Centre in a project run by Jardines Pharmacy

A cinema and a pharmacy are helping provide the roll-out of Covid vaccines.

Residents of Biggleswade were vaccinated at The Weatherley Centre in a project run by a pharmacy in the Bedfordshire town, while the Odeon cinema in Aylesbury offered the vaccine to those in the Buckinghamshire area.

The government aims to offer vaccines to 15 million people by mid-February.

It is hoped the centres will help reach smaller communities.

PA Media Vaccine centre at Odeon, AylesburyPA Media
The Odeon is closed for cinemagoers but open for vaccines
Enid receiving vaccine in Aylesbury
Enid Stapleton said she was getting the vaccine to keep herself and others safe

Enid Stapleton was the first to receive her jab at the Odeon in Aylesbury.

The 86-year-old said: "I'm doing this to keep me and all of us safe."

All cinemas in England are closed under current lockdown restrictions.

Patients receive vaccine at the Weatherley Centre, Biggleswade
It is hoped opening centres like the one in Biggleswade will help vaccinate those smaller communities

Those being vaccinated in Biggleswade said they felt a "great relief" and that anyone who did not want the jab was "silly".

Jardines Pharmacy began its vaccine roll-out at the community centre with 200 appointments on Thursday and expects to see 400 people on Saturday.

Fiona Garnett from Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Clinical Commissioning Group advised people not to worry if they had not been contacted about their vaccination yet.

"If you haven't been called, don't panic," Ms Garnett said.

"The country is at different stages of vaccinations.

"Everybody will be called, everybody will be vaccinated, it is just taking different amounts of time in different parts of the country."

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