STAFF working at a Covid-19 testing centre in Northwich say they have been given their first vaccine dose — just days after expressing concerns over their safety.

Last week, the Local Democracy Reporting Service revealed that workers at the Leicester Street facility were ‘disgruntled’ as they had not been asked if they want to be moved up the list for vaccination and not been offered a lateral flow test.

An anonymous source said this would help to keep their families safe at home and prevent spreading Covid-19 among staff – with the team seeing up to 130 people a day with coronavirus symptoms.

Now, the source has confirmed that all staff working at the government/G4S run site have now had their first jab against Covid-19.

They said: “I am pleased to say that all of the staff at the Covid test centre have now been vaccinated with the Astra Zeneca jab today. One of the site managers worked extremely hard to organised this with the vaccine centre on Kingsmead.

“We all feel very lucky to have received the jab so quickly after you printed the previous story.

“The process went smoothly and was organised exceptionally well. All the staff at the vaccine centre were very nice and reassuring, I would urge anyone who is offered the vaccine to take it as soon as you are able to, I didn't notice any side effects. The staff bought flowers for the site manager to thank him for his excellent logistical skills in organising our vaccinations.”

The news was confirmed by NHS Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group, the body responsible for organising the county’s vaccine programme.

A spokesperson said: “Staff were eligible to receive a vaccination, as outlined in the Green Book. Similar to laboratory or pathology staff, people who frequently handle SARS-CoV-2 or collect or handle potentially infected specimens are eligible for a vaccine.

“Extensive work has been undertaken to contact eligible health and care staff and their teams across Cheshire to offer a vaccination.

“Significant progress has been made but any eligible frontline health and social care worker whose practice or organisation has not received communication from us can contact us.”