A walk-in Pfizer vaccination site has opened at the Turning Point treatment centre in Croydon today (Thursday, June 17) as new cases of Covid-19 continue to rise in the borough.

NHS Croydon said the Turning Point treatment centre at Lantern Hall on Church Road would be open from 12pm-4pm on Thursday and offer first doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to anyone aged 21 and over.

The walk-in centre opened amid sharply rising numbers of new Covid-19 infections in Croydon according to the latest data released by Public Health England (PHE).

In the week up to June 11 there were 285 new confirmed cases of the virus confirmed in the borough, with the highly infectious Delta variant now making up a majority of cases in the UK according to health officials.

New cases in Croydon up to June 11 increased by 74, or 35.1 per cent, from the previous week's figure.

The borough's rolling rate of new infections per 100,000 people stood at 73.7 over the period, slightly higher than the UK-wide average of 72.8.

Up to June 4, there have been a total of 1,006 deaths in Croydon related to Covid-19. 

The latest figures emerged as MPs voted by a large margin (461-60) on Wednesday to postpone the ending of all restrictions brought in to curb the spread of Covid-19 amid rising numbers of new cases across the UK.

Top scientists have meanwhile rejected claims that they had "won" by securing an extension to lockdown restrictions, saying that it would not have been necessary if the UK government had acted differently.

Professor Stephen Reicher, a member of the Spi-B group of behavioural scientists advising ministers, rejected a suggestion by LBC radio that scientists were “delighted” that they had “won the argument” over a four-week delay to the end of lockdown measures in the country.

He told LBC: "All of us were distraught. I personally was distraught, none of us want those restrictions.

"And we shouldn’t have been in this position if we’d acted properly and if we’d had proper safeguards to our borders, if we’d had proper support for people to self-isolate, and so on, I don’t think we would have been in this position."

Click here for more information on coronavirus infections where you live.