HUNDREDS of people in their 80s and those most vulnerable have received the Covid-19 jab at Wellington Cottage Hospital since it was set up as a vaccination site by the NHS at the end of last week.

The aim is to eventually vaccinate almost every eligible person in the fight against Covid-19, which has been prevalent in the Wellington area in recent weeks. Health and care teams across Somerset have been working closely with national NHS colleagues to set up local GP vaccination services.

Wellington, with the support of many volunteers, was one of three GP-led community sites to start up last week, joining Wincanton and Taunton, and Taunton Racecourse began daily vaccinations of more than 900 people this week. In all more than a dozen sites in Somerset are offering vaccine jabs.

Andy Heron, joint senior responsible officer for the Somerset Covid-19 vaccination programme, said: “We are really delighted to launch our final three Primary Care Network sites – this will ensure that we can increase the number of vaccine appointments we can offer in the community across all 13 PCN areas, in addition to the hospital hubs running at Musgrove Park Hospital and Yeovil District Hospital.

“We want to thank everyone for patiently waiting to be contacted. Health and care colleagues from across the county are working extremely hard to ensure that we can offer the vaccines as quickly and safely as possible.”