More than 140,000 people in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland have received their first Covid jab.

A total of 148,250 injections have been given in total, 142,209 first doses and 6,041 second doses.

Vaccinations data, released by NHS England today shows that:

45,863 over 80s (86.9 per cent) have had their first dose

26,753 people in the 75-79-year-olds category (73.1 per cent) have been given jab number one

14,903 (28 per cent) of those aged 70-74 have had their first injection

54,690 people under 70 (percentage not provided) have been given their first dose

Acting chief executive of Leicester's hospitals, Rebecca Brown, earlier revealed that hospital vaccine hubs have injected more than 35,000 healthcare professionals.

She said: "I am so proud of what we have been able to achieve, we have vaccinated over 35,000 members of staff.

"That is not just our staff, that is staff within the wider NHS family and social care family. We are doing this tirelessly, there are people working around the clock on this.

"Our system response has been fantastic, we are in the top quartile of delivery of vaccines.

"We will continue until we have everyone vaccinated and bring an end to this challenge that we are facing."

As of yesterday, more than 10 million people in the UK have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

The government has set itself a target to offer first doses to 15 million people in the top four priority groups, including everyone over 70 years old, by 15 February.

Once that target has been met, a detailed timeline will be set out for the next set of priority groups, including people aged 50 to 69.

Vaccinating the 30 million people in the nine priority groups will reportedly reduce the potential for Covid hospital admissions and deaths by 99 per cent.