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This page is refreshed through the day so please check in regularly to keep across developments and news.
Public Health dashboard: Detailed Public Health information dashboards are available on our website www.somerset.gov.uk/coronavirus just scroll down to ‘Covid-19 dashboard’. These are updated daily.
Top stories today:
Weekend walk-in vaccinations
This weekend the local NHS is setting up a series of walk-in vaccination centres to make it easier for everyone to get either their first or second dose.
Please check on social media for any updates, but at present, the dates we’ve been given are as follows:
Saturday 26 June
- Yeovil Gateway Centre: for first dose Pfizer 12.00 – 4pm
- Day Lewis Pharmacy, Burnham-on-Sea Rugby Football Club: 5.00pm – 7.00pm for first dose Pfizer and second dose AstraZeneca
- Taunton Racecourse: 8am – 8pm for second dose AstraZeneca
- Winchester Farm, Cheddar: 9am-3pm for first dose Pfizer
Sunday 27 June
- Taunton Racecourse: 8am – 8pm for second dose AstraZeneca
- The Bath and West Showground: 10am – 5pm for second dose AstraZeneca
- Day Lewis Pharmacy Burnham-on-Sea: 3pm-5pm for first dose Pfizer
Vaccinations also continue to be available for anyone in priority groups 1-12 who have not yet taken up the offer of a vaccine, by booking an appointment through the National Booking Service, or using one of the walk-in clinics. JCVI are advising a preference for a vaccine other than AstraZeneca to be offered to healthy people under 40 years of age. This is being delivered at all Somerset vaccination sites.
And as more people are now being offered their second dose, we urge you to please accept it at your earliest convenient date, eight weeks after your first dose. A single jab will not give the maximum protection against the virus – the best protection comes after the second.
All three vaccines, Pfizer, Oxford AstraZeneca and Moderna are up to 90 per cent effective after two doses. Getting the second dose will boost your immune response and ensure you are better protected from the virus should you be exposed.
New destinations added to Green travel list
The Transport Secretary has confirmed measures to continue cautiously reopening international travel.
From 4am on Wednesday 30 June, Malta, Madeira, the Balearic Islands, several UK overseas territories and Caribbean islands (including Barbados) will be added to the government’s green list, having met the necessary criteria to be reclassified.
All additions to the green list apart from Malta will also join the ‘green watchlist’, as will Israel and Jerusalem – signalling that these countries are at risk of moving from green to amber.
The Government has also signalled that later in the summer, arrivals who are fully vaccinated will not have to quarantine when travelling from amber list countries. They will still be required to take a pre-departure test and a test on day 2, and any positive results will be sequenced to continue to manage the risk of importing variants.
Until these measures are introduced, all passengers, whether vaccinated or not, must continue to abide by quarantine rules for returning to the UK from an amber list country, and it is recommended that people should not travel to amber list countries at the moment.
Get creative and help us celebrate Frontline Workers’ Day
It’s Frontline Workers’ Day on 5 July and this year it’s more important than ever to take the time to thank our brilliant and dedicated frontline workers.
Somerset County Council hopes people will want to get involved, either by sharing their stories and ideas, or by finding a creative way to say thank you to the frontline workers who have made such a difference this year.
Here are some creative ideas to get involved:
- Write a blog about your experiences as a frontline worker
- Organise a virtual tea party with colleagues
- Get creative with pictures, paintings, sculptures, dancing, or songs
- Record a video and share with us – it could be simply a thank you message
- Creative bake off – most weird and wonderful cake wins
Please share your ideas, blogs, photos and videos (with consent, of course) to Communications@somerset.gov.uk or share on social media and use the hashtag #SomersetFrontlineHeroes – Facebook: @somersetcountycouncil / Twitter: @SomersetCouncil