One in four adults have first dose of Covid vaccine in the East of England

One quarter of all adults in the East of England have now had the first vaccine injection in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

The latest figures from Public Health England show that nearly 1.28 million people in the region have now had the first dose of the Covid jab with 57,000 of those having had both injections.

The daily figures dipped on Sunday with 28,000 getting injected with some vaccine centres closed because of the wintry weather.

Currently those over the age of 70, those who live and work in care homes and anyone who is clinically extremely vulnerable is being targeted in the vaccine rollout.

The aim is to get a first dose to all those groups by next week.

The next two groups in the priority list for vaccination are those over 65 and people with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious illness or death from coronavirus.

The daily number of first coronavirus vaccine doses given in the East of England Credit: Data from NHS England

The NHS reported on Monday that a further 52 hospital patients had died with coronavirus in the Anglia region. That follows 48 deaths reported on Sunday and 136 on Saturday.

So far this year, the NHS says 4,156 patients have died with Covid-19 in hospitals in the Anglia region compared with 6,574 deaths during the pandemic in 2020.