VOLUNTEERS across Romsey and Test Valley are pulling together again to keep the rollout of coronavirus vaccines going at a steady pace.

Earlier this month, Crosfield Hall, Broadwater Road, was transformed into a vaccine hub to deliver doses of the life-saving jabs.

The facility first opened its doors to help with the biggest immunisation programme in UK history at the end of December.

Now the hall is being used as a vaccination venue on Friday and Saturday, having already been in operation this week.

This comes as more than 7 million people received their first dose of the Covid vaccine, with the Government aiming to administer two million per week, to protect the 15 million people most vulnerable to the virus by mid-February.

Nine members from Nursling Men's Shed, based beside St Boniface Church, will have helped with the rollout effort this week, alongside an army of volunteers from Romsey-based charity Unity, after the group already aided the cause since it kicked off in December.

Chair of the group, Graham Gowman, told the Advertiser: "The week before Christmas, we were contacted by Unity and asked if we could help with the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

"Several of our members have now turned out for four sessions of car park marshalling and parking, meeting and greeting and sanitising chairs, not particularly onerous duties, but we were so pleased to be able to help in any way.

"The patients arriving for their jab were in some cases so frail and poorly, but they were all very grateful and positive, and even for the menial jobs we were doing there was a constant chorus of 'thank you’s’.

"It was really uplifting and certainly improved our own wellbeing."

He added the group is booked in to do similar tasks at short notice once more vaccines become available.

As reported, Unity confirmed 633 people across the borough have so far signed up to aid the cause, according to figures at the start of the month.

In association with the Andover Primary Care Network and the Romsey & North Baddesley Primary Care Network, Unity will help ensure everything runs smoothly, including checking to make sure that people know what to expect when they go in.

To find out how you can help, visit this website: https://bit.ly/3s5hxZ.