Mohamed trains as vaccinator to help end pandemic

A Council officer and community-spirited volunteer has trained as a vaccinator to help combat Coronavirus.

Mohamed Sidat, who works in the Council’s social integration programme team, took up the opportunity of training with St John Ambulance in February of this year.

48-year-old dad of three Mohamed said:

I volunteer with Samaritans and all their volunteers were offered the chance to train as vaccinators. This isn’t the kind of opportunity you get every day and I thought it would be amazing to be a small part of the national drive to combat Coronavirus.

Over the last 16 months, my role at work has changed and I’ve been involved in the Help Hub, community testing, surge testing and encouraging vaccination. To also train as a vaccinator and help people protect themselves against Covid was ‘the whole package’ to me.

Members of my family have suffered or lost their lives to Covid, and I’ve got family in South African and India who are struggling to access the vaccine. This is the best opportunity for me to do my bit to help end the pandemic.

Mohamed has already given over 150 people their Covid jabs, mostly at the ACT Centre in Accrington. Working full time, Mohamed takes on shifts as a vaccinator at the weekend – he’s got two shifts coming up this weekend, in fact.

Mohamed, who had both his doses of the vaccine as soon as he was eligible, also appears in a Council communications campaign to encourage local people to get vaccinated. The campaign features residents of all ages and backgrounds sharing their reasons for getting vaccinated.

Mohamed continued:

Some people coming into the vaccine centre still feel unsure about the vaccine right up to the point when they have their jab. We need to get as many people vaccinated and if seeing other people’s reasons for getting vaccinated helps someone to make up their mind to have it, I’m proud to be a part of it.

Adam Williams, St John Ambulance’s Head of Community Response, said:

St John Ambulance volunteers have now given more than a million hours of their time to help combat COVID-19, including almost 600,000 hours on vaccinations.

Every single hour gets us closer to the other side of this pandemic, and we’re hugely grateful to volunteers like Mohamed for giving their time so generously.

Coun Mohammed Khan, Leader of the Council, commented:

Vaccine roll-out in Blackburn with Darwen is going well. A targeted vaccination push in May encouraged many people to come forward and get their first jabs at pop-up clinics in community venues. As these people are now becoming eligible for their second doses, more convenient vaccine clinics, open from early in the morning into the evening, are opening up around the borough from this week.

I would urge anyone who wants to help things get back to some kind of normality safely to get vaccinated as soon as they can.

Several local sites are offering first and second doses of Pfizer and Astra Zeneca vaccines – with both walk-ins and pre-bookable appointments available. More details are available here.