New appointment slots for Wrexham expected this week as people encouraged to keep checking new vaccine booking system

Additional coronavirus vaccine appointment slots for the Wrexham area are set to be added to a new booking system in the coming days.

Anyone over the age of 18 across North Wales who has yet to receive a first or second dose of either the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines can now book appointments online as part of a new service being rolled out by the health board.

Clinics are available at vaccination centres across the region. Locally these are being held at the Catrin Finch Centre on the university campus, the Llay Royal British Legion and Plas Madoc Leisure Centre.

Short notice vaccination drop in sessions are also being held in order to increase flexibility to avoid any vaccine wastage.

Anyone who has to yet to have their first dose is being asked not to wait for an appointment letter to arrive in the post and to book your appointment online as soon as possible.

Due to the threat posed by the delta variant, the second dose interval for the Pfizer vaccine has been brought forward to eight weeks.

This means that anyone who has had a first dose of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine can now book their second dose appointment for the same brand vaccine, once eight weeks have passed since their first dose.

Since its launch at the start of the month the online booking system has had 225,000 total page views.

However there has been some confusion over the system, with limited or no appointments available to prebook in some parts of the region – including in Wrexham. This is despite the opportunity to pre book your second dose at an eight week interval.

A spokesperson for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board encouraged people to keep checking for new appointments and that new slots for the Wrexham and Flintshire areas will be added this week.

Karen Evans, Assistant Director of Community Services in the East Area of BCUHB, said: “Our online booking service aims to make it quick and easy for people to book a first or second dose appointment at a convenient date, time and location.

“Clinics are being held in locations across North Wales and new appointment slots are being added on a regular basis, so we encourage people to keep checking our website if they haven’t been able to find an appointment the first time round.

“Based on our expected supply, we will add new appointment slots for clinics in the Wrexham and Flintshire area this week.”

If you cannot access the internet to book online, please phone the Covid-19 Vaccination Contact Centre on 03000 840004. The lines can be very busy, so you are asked to please be patient.

You can book an appointment to be vaccinated on the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board website, here.