It's the great national health drive of our time - the Covid-19 Vaccination Programme.

Vaccinations against the coronvirus began this month with hospital, social care and care home workers and people aged 80 and over among the first to receive it.

The first cohort of people to get the vaccine have been chosen with the aim of saving lives and reducing hospital admissions by as much as possible.

The priority list is as follows:

1. residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
2. all those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers
3. all those 75 years of age and over
4. all those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
5. all those 65 years of age and over
6. all individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality
7. all those 60 years of age and over
8. all those 55 years of age and over
9. all those 50 years of age and over

By vaccinating people in these categories, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation believes it can reduce preventable deaths to covid by 99%.

More coverage:

Job of the day: Join the covid vaccine delivery team in Richmond