The first seven days of the local mass vaccination programme have seen thousands of Ayrshire residents coming forward and rolling up their sleeves.

Appointments are currently being offered to all residents aged 65 to 79 during the first two weeks of February. Since the mass vaccination centres opened their doors on 1 February, 20,231 people have been welcomed to these community venues for their vaccine.

There were 460 jabs given out at West Kilbride Village Hall on Sunday alone, while the vaccine was issued in Cumbrae on Saturday, and Skelmorlie on Monday and Tuesday. Vaccines begin at Inverclyde Sports Centre in Largs on Wednesday.

NHS Ayrshire & Arran Deputy Nursing Director Jenny Wilson is one of the local programme leads and has also been on the ground delivering vaccinations. She said: “The vaccination centres are running really smoothly and we are delighted to be able to offer so many people their vaccine against COVID-19. The atmosphere in our centres is really positive – we are finding people are so happy to be coming for vaccination and it is great for the team to see so much enthusiasm and gratitude from members of the public.”

Appointments at the mass vaccination centres are continuing this week – with around five thousand appointments allocated for each day.

NHS Ayrshire & Arran have already offered vaccinations to all care home residents and staff, our frontline health and social care workforce and local GP practices have been offering appointments to the over 80s, those in the shielding group and housebound patients. Uptake has been very high and to date 71,548 vaccinations have been delivered locally since the programme began on 8 December 2020.

NHS Ayrshire & Arran Chief Executive John Burns said: “This vaccination programme is quite simply the biggest thing we have ever done and our teams are working tirelessly to deliver it as quickly as possible. I’m incredibly proud of the huge efforts being exerted right across the health and social care system to serve our communities at this time – the logistics, planning and delivery of this programme are immense and the success so far is down to hard work and determination from everyone involved."