12 Feb COVID-19 vaccinations finish at Torquay’s Riviera Centre

Our volunteers for the Torbay Vaccination Centres, celebrating at Torre Abbey Meadows in 2022, with Volunteer Coordinator Matt Dart

The vaccination centre at the Riviera in Torquay has closed its doors for the last time after four years of operation.

Hundreds of thousands of people from across Torbay have made the journey to the RICC on numerous occasions since the vaccination rollout began in January 2021.

It is hard to believe it was only four years ago that the fight back against COVID began giving us all hope after nearly a year of fear and disruption accompanied by illness, a mounting death toll and a new regime in all our lives, lockdowns.

The appeal for volunteers to marshal the vaccination centre first went out just after Christmas, and the Torbay Community Helpline was swamped with callers all offering to help with the rollout.

I wrote at the time: “Within hours of putting out an appeal for more volunteers to help with the vaccine rollout and supporting people shielding, our phones were ringing off the hook.

“Everyone of you wanted to help out in any way you could – some were braced to spend hours outside the Riviera Centre in freezing temperatures

“During the first lockdown, nearly 1000 people came forward, and we struggled to allocate them all as the crisis deepened, but we did contact as many as we were able and there are a lot of grateful people who were helped when they most needed it..

“This time around, we are hoping that during this lockdown we will be able to get everything in place to beat this virus once and for all.

“But it is going to be a long haul. With a population just shy of 150,000 people, nearly 50% of whom are over the age of 50, the vaccine rollout is going to take time.”

In those early days, 147 volunteers worked side by side with NHS staff at the Riviera Centre to ensure the operations ran smoothly and maintained a steady and efficient flow in and out.

We had another two hundred-plus volunteers waiting in the wings, ready to take their place on shifts that not only marshalled arrivals but chaperoned people as they passed through reception.

We were overwhelmed by the kindness shown by the people of Torbay and were delighted by the response to the many appeals we made for extra help, each appeal never failing to set the Helpline phones alight with offers.

The vast majority of those volunteers stuck with us throughout returning to the Riviera Centre every time the next round of vaccinations were rolled out.

We maintained a team of 280 volunteers on rotation; each day the vaccine centre operated we needed 40 of them, six days a week covering 60 plus hours all of which allowed somewhere in the region of half a million vaccines to be delivered.

It is a nigh-on unbelievable figure, but over the four years, our volunteers delivered just short of 120,000 hours, all for free and all for the Torbay community. That is the living wage equivalent of more than £1.35m.

Every volunteer had to be tested for COVID prior to entering the building, temperature checked, and masks had to be worn 24/7 while on duty and in public areas.

Sadly, they had to put up with abuse and insults and had to deal with the vociferous anti-vaxxers on a regular basis, but still, they somehow maintained their smiles and were always on hand to reassure the more nervous jab recipients.

In the words of our Volunteer Coordinator, Matt Dart who has worked alongside the volunteers from the beginning: “The volunteers at the Vaccine Centre had something special that no-one else had at the time and this was being able to meet up, have a coffee and a chat face to face, even if it was two metres apart.

“They built friendships and supported each other, and every one of them had a story to tell. I am proud of every single one of the volunteers who gave up their time during this worrying period of our lives and I feel privileged to have been part of it. This is the end of an era for everyone involved, but what an experience!”

Footnote: The delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine has not stopped; it will continue and will be administered at smaller venues and GP surgeries instead.