Beverley Racecourse Becomes A Covid Vaccination Centre

Beverley is the fifth racecourse in England to be confirmed as a vaccination centre, following Epsom, Leicester, Newcastle, and Windsor. Racecourse Association chief executive David Armstrong said: “We’re pleased to be able to do it. In some cases the racecourses have approached the NHS and in other cases the NHS has approached the racecourse, but there are quite a number of racecourses participating.”

He explained why racecourses are such a suitable location for mass vaccinations to happen: “The reason why they work so well is because of their size, space and parking facilities. They’re a natural place to bring a large amount of people to.”

Sally Iggulden, Beverley Racecourse’s Chief Executive, said: “We approached the local NHS trust to see if we could help rolling out the vaccine. We had approval for that in December and hopefully we’ll start from tomorrow [Wednesday, 7th January].

“We’re down to do that for three months and that may be extended depending on how that goes. It’s the one thing we’re resting our hopes on, so to be a part of that is really nice.”

The government intends to increase vaccinations being given in the coming weeks, and Iggulden added staff were looking forward to being part of the “one thing we’re resting our hopes on” to permit a return to normality following the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic.

“There has been a request for volunteers to help and it could be that staff may be able to join doing that at some point,” she said. “To start off with there’ll be plenty of us there helping with car parking and stewarding. It’s quite nice for the team to have people on site again and I know they’re all looking forward to it. We’re expecting it to be really busy.”