THE RESPONSE of Workington’s health service to the Covid-19 pandemic has been praised by the nation’s health secretary who said he is “incredibly grateful.”

Secretary of state for health and social care Matt Hancock has hailed the “unbelievable effort” of the medical staff and volunteers in Allerdale who are leading the charge in the Covid-19 vaccination programme.

In a social media video yesterday he said: “I want to say a massive thank you to everybody in Workington, in Cockermouth and Maryport, in Keswick and Solway who are working with the North Cumbria CCG and the NHS, and all of the GPs who are delivering an unbelievable effort.

Mr Hancock said: “Across the Workington constituency, more than two in five of everybody has already been vaccinated, that is ahead of the national average, I’m incredibly grateful to the hard work of the NHS and volunteers, of people like Doctor Nial McGreevy and Simon Desert and Mateus Dombrowski, and Richard Massey.”

He also praised Workington MP Mark Jenkinson for promoting the message that Covid-19 vaccines are safe.

To people of the Workington constituency, he said: “Huge thank you to the effort, I’m really grateful.”

Dr McGreevy is one of those from the Cumbrian NHS who are working hard to reassure the public that the jabs are safe.

He said: “This past year has been difficult for all of us, including those of us who work in the NHS, thank you for all you’ve been doing to follow the guidance and reduce the spread of this virus. We need to keep going.

“We’ve been working hard on the vaccination programme so there is a light at the end of the tunnel, together we can defeat this virus.”

Cumbria’s Covid-19 response hitting national headlines this week was fortuitous as Wednesday marked one year to the day that the county recorded its first case of the virus.

Director of Public Health Colin Cox has called the county’s efforts to tackle the virus “astonishing,” telling Newsquest Cumbria: “But it’s still been devastating. It’s 12 months since we got our first Cumbrian case, in Carlisle, on March 3 last year and since then, if you go by the figures from the Office for National Statistics, there have been, up to February 12, 1,400 deaths registered with Covid.”

Ed Tallis, director of primary care for NHS North Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group, said: "It’s great to see our teams getting praise directly from the Secretary of State for Health.

"There is absolutely no doubt that every one of our primary care teams – the GPs, practice nurses, paramedics, pharmacists, healthcare assistants, all the admin teams and many, many volunteers - have worked tirelessly to roll-out the covid vaccine programme.

"It is the biggest of its kind and I know how much work goes on behind the scenes to make it happen.

"Our teams have given up time off and worked above and beyond for the last three months.

"We are confident that we will have offered the vaccine to all of our over 50s by the end of April and all adults by the end of July. This is a phenomenal achievement.

"We know that people are keen to get their vaccine as soon as they can, but we would ask people to continue to be patient and give our teams the chance to work through the huge numbers we are calling in.”