Edinburgh's drive-through flu jab centres to close on Saturday due to severe weather forecast bringing flood and travel risk

All drive-through flu jab centres in Edinburgh will be closed tomorrow due to forecast heavy rain which could cause flooding and travel disruption.

The Met Office has issued a yellow ‘be aware’ warning for rain which will be in place from 3am on Saturday until noon on Sunday.

The Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership has now taken the decision to temporarily pause drive through vaccination clinics, which operate outdoors, as a result.

A spokesperson for the partnership said: "Keeping the people of Edinburgh safe and healthy is our priority, and we feel it is the right step to close our drive through clinics when a spell of such severe weather is expected to hit the city.

A nurse and volunteer talk to patients in their vehicle at one of the new the drive-thru flu clinics at Little France, Edinburgh/ Heavy rain is forecast across the UK on Saturday. Pic: Met Office

"While our clinics do not require patients to leave the car, they do involve our nurses and front line workers administering the flu vaccine outdoors. We need to ensure their safety and wellbeing should heavy downpours and flooding occur, as indicated by the severe weather warning, and we want to avoid encouraging our patients to make unnecessary travel during extreme road conditions.

"This is, of course, a temporary step and we'll re-open centres as soon as it is safe to do so. Our plan is for all centres to be operating again on Sunday.”

Walk through clinics scheduled for Saturday will operate as planned and information is available through the NHS Inform website.

Residents are also advised to monitor the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership's social media channels.

The ten centres are a response to the Covid-19 pandemic and will operate until December.

They are the first drive-through flu vaccine centres in Scotland and can vaccinate up to 500 people a day and could provide a blueprint for how to deliver vaccination programmes in future.

However, the Edinburgh Evening News reported how organisers of the flu clinics had reported some ‘teething problems’ last weekend.

With the added risk of Covid-19, the Scottish Government has expanded its vaccination programme this year so that more groups than ever before will be eligible. This means social care workers, people aged over 55 and household members who are shielding will now be able to get the seasonal flu vaccine. The government will also look to extend it to those aged 50-54 should vaccine supplies allow.

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