Firefighters and support staff at Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) will be continuing to provide support in the national fight against the pandemic.

We will be sending volunteers to help the NHS administer the COVID-19 vaccine and to help on mass testing sites around the county.

Volunteers will be trained and supervised by NHS staff.  They will receive the vaccine and will be provided with full PPE at the same level as NHS personnel administering the vaccine.

So far during this pandemic we have been undertaking additional activities, including delivering 11,817 food and medication parcels to vulnerable people and covering 201 shifts with EMAS.

We will continue to help where needed to help fight the pandemic.

Chief Fire Officer John Buckley said: "I am incredibly proud of the efforts that have been shown in responding to COVID-19 and I am equally proud of this Service and our role within communities. 

“I know that now is a time that we are needed, not in our traditional roles, but in a role where we can make a huge difference to the lives of others by supporting the NHS to deliver this task.  I, personally, will be volunteering to support the work and I am thankful to the staff that will be joining me.”

National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) Chair Roy Wilsher said: “With almost 23,000 wholetime firefighters across England alone, there is a real opportunity for Fire and Rescue Services to play a key role in helping to deliver and administer vaccinations across the entire UK. There are an additional 12,498 on-call firefighters ready willing and able to help.

“It is in the DNA of a firefighter to assist where help is needed the most; I know staff will not sit behind the red doors of their fire station, when their help is needed in the communities they so ably serve. They will not wait for the pandemic to pass them by; they are ready, willing and able to continue to be at the heart of the response.”