Lincoln vaccine shuttle bus to battle high infection rate

Shuttle busses will transport people to the Lincolnshire Showground for their Coronavirus vaccine in a bid to combat Lincolnshire’s high infection rates.

Natalie Liddle, from Public Health Lincolnshire told BBC Radio Lincolnshire that conversations were underway to help improve accessibility to the site, with the busses hoped to be confirmed in the next few days.

Organisers could not tell reporters how people will be able to book a seat on the busses yet, or confirm the pick-up locations, but said further details would be announced soon.

Lincoln has had the the highest infection rate in England for the eighth day in a row, yesterday sitting at 669.7 per 100,000 population. Meanwhile the rest of Lincolnshire’s districts are all continuing to rise up the rankings with the majority sitting in the top 150 local authorities.

Pilot measures have already taken place within the city, including a local testing unit which Natalie said over the weekend carried out 2,363 tests. Other initiatives include stocking local shops with testing kits, getting taxi drivers to hand them out after dropping off customers and getting nightclubs involved in promoting vaccines and testing.

Natalie told the BBC: “[There’s been] a really sterling effort in terms of community uptake and people wanting to come forward and access the testing which is great for us because it means that more people are taking those tests before they may be going about their business or starting to maybe go out and socialise.”

As well as shuttle busses, there could also be more mobile pop-up vaccination clinics appearing, while further work on promoting anti-COVID measures is taking place in local gyms.

Lincolnshire’s infection rates from July 19 to August 9. | Table: Daniel Jaines, Data: Gov.UK

According to yesterday’s infection rates, five local authorities currently sit above the England average infection rate of 286.9 per 100,000 population: Lincoln (669.7), North East Lincolnshire (470.6), North Kesteven (432.5), North Lincolnshire (352.5) and West Lindsey (296.3).

The only authority to have seen a decrease, however, is North East Lincolnshire which decreased from 471.3 on August 3, to 470.6 by August 9.

South Holland District Council sits the lowest of the authorities at 301st place, however, has still risen from 342nd last week.