ANOTHER 40,000 people across Herefordshire and Worcester have had the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

The two counties are still amongst the top area for the number of people they have vaccinated, and Michelle Wood from Herefordshire's public health team said it has been a "really good uptake in Herefordshire and Worcestershire which is absolutely fantastic".

The figures up to February 7 show 185,264 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have now been given in the two counties, with the figures not broken down further by NHS England.

It means over the week to February 7, 40,294 doses were given. Some 40,234 of those were first doses, and 60 were second doses given around 12 weeks after the first.

It means 47,413 people over-80 in the region have been given their first dose, up from 46,266 the week before, equivalent to 96.1 per cent of the estimated population. This is one of the highest rates across England's 42 regions.

The NHS data shows almost 100 per cent over 75 to 79-year-olds have been vaccinated, a total of 35,360, and 76.5 per cent of 70 to 74-year-olds.

In addition to this 62,654 first doses have also been given to a population of around 515,630 16 to 69-year-olds.

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The provisional figures from NHS England show the number of first doses broken down by so-called Sustainability & Transformational Partnerships (STPs), each of which contains a number of local authorities, NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups.

The top four priority groups, the over-70s and clinically extremely vulnerable, in Herefordshire have now been offered an appointment, with the plan to vaccinate all over-50s by the end of May.

Speaking about the roll-out, Michelle Wood from Herefordshire's public health team said: "At the moment we have the nine priority groups, that's set by the government and not something that's done locally by public health.

"They are based on reducing mortality, the people who are likely to have the worst impact from Covid.

"All those people [in the first four groups] have been offered an appointment and we're now going back to them to say if they hadn't taken up the appointment, would they like one.

"If you know anyone in those groups, over-70, ask them if they've had an appointment.

"If they haven't, contact the NHS or ask them what would help them get the vaccination, it's very important people do and get it at the earliest possible opportunity and go back and have the second dose 12 weeks later.

"It's envisaged by the end of May that all those nine groups will have their first dose of the vaccine."

She emphasised the need to still be cautious even if someone has been vaccinated, and face masks and handwashing are just as important.