A ‘POP-UP’ Covid vaccination clinic staged at a Keighley mosque has been hailed as a huge success.

Today's session was believed to be the first of its kind at a mosque in the region.

Behind the initiative were GP groups Modality and Wharfedale, Airedale & Craven Alliance, in partnership with the Central Mosque.

Around 160 people were vaccinated throughout the afternoon, in the mosque’s community hall.

“It has been a very successful day,” said a Modality spokesman.

“We achieved the target number of vaccinations and the feedback was excellent.

“Many people were just thankful to have the opportunity to get vaccinated.

“It was very much a partnership effort, involving all the GPs in Keighley ­– not just Modality, but also Ling House and North Street surgeries.

“Our driving force for holding this clinic was to address any vaccination ‘gaps’ in certain communities – and we plan to organise more like this; it’s not a one-off.

“We will be working with all communities across Airedale and we’re happy to run sessions in churches, mosques and community centres to ensure everybody has an opportunity to have the vaccine.”

He added that the organising team was keen to get the message out to communities that the vaccine is safe and to dispel myths.

Echoing that is Dr Matt Curtis, medical director at Modality.

He said: “We want to remove barriers and work closely with communities to encourage the uptake of the vaccination.

“By working with the Central Mosque team, we could spread our message and information about the vaccines to parts of the local population which may not have access to the facts surrounding the vaccine and the vaccination programme.

“We want to work with everyone to ensure this is the most successful vaccination programme ever and to reassure the local community about the safety of the vaccinations.”

Mohammed Nazam, from the Central Mosque, said it was important that everybody was aware of the truth about the vaccine.

He added: “We have lost a great many members of our community to Covid-19, including some of our community leaders.

“We want everyone to know the facts about the vaccine and to understand the reasons to have it.

“We’re really keen to see a successful vaccination programme and we readily offered our community hall as a suitable site. We want to help educate our community about the vaccine.”