Rutland residents are to be invited to be vaccinated against Covid-19 at a mass vaccination centre.

Alicia Kearns MP said this afternoon that seven such centres will begin offering vaccinations from next week, as well as pharmacies will also start a more localised roll-out of the vaccine.

The MP said: "The letter will be from the National Vaccination Scheme and will provide residents with the chance to be vaccinated sooner than the local vaccination programme as these centres can do tens of thousands of vaccinations as they are stadiums and race-courses.

"However, it is likely the mass vaccination hub will be much further away from home - for example Birmingham or potentially Derby (not an official mass hub), however more sites will continue to be stood-up over the next few weeks, increasingly closer to us."

She continued: "To be clear - this is an additional service to give you more choice, flexibility and the opportunity to be vaccinated, quicker.

"You can accept the national vaccination offer and travel to a mass vaccination hub

OR

"

You can choose instead to wait for an invitation locally at our hubs in Melton, Oakham, Billesdon, Market Harborough, Charnwood, Leicester hospitals, Stamford, Grantham, Peterborough, or within Northamptonshire or Rushcliffe (depending on which GP you're registered at) if you don't wish to travel further for your vaccination."

The MP added: "As residents will be aware, this week we received the Oxford & AstraZeneca vaccine in Melton and Oakham, and our wonderful local vaccination teams and volunteers continue to work enormously hard to vaccinate priority groups.

"The greater ease of transporting and storing this vaccine means we will shortly move to a model of vaccination hubs being able to order vaccines rather than waiting for deliveries which are more spaced out to minimise wastage.

"The Pfizer vaccine continues to be delivered, and the Moderna vaccine will arrive later in the Spring."