All over-80s in Plymouth will get coronavirus vaccine 'by end of the week', claims MP Johnny Mercer

The MP for Plymouth believes all over-80s could get their first dose by Friday. Credit: PA images

All over-80s in Plymouth will have received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine by the end of the week, according to local MP Johnny Mercer.

Speaking in a video posted on Twitter, he said Plymouth has a "good story to tell" and he believes all people over the age of 80 will be vaccinated by Friday.

If not by Friday, he said, "certainly by the end of this week."

The clip of Mr Mercer was uploaded on Monday 18 January after he spent much of the weekend speaking to local NHS teams and the vaccines minister, Nadhim Zahawi.

  • Watch the full update from Plymouth's MP:

Johnny Mercer also said he hopes to reveal the details of a new mass vaccination centre for Plymouth on Friday 22 January, which will open in the next couple of weeks.

He said: "This is the way out of this horrible situation. Please continue to observe the rules.

"It's rubbish, its rubbish for everybody, but the vaccine rollout is going well in Plymouth and I hope by the end of the week we'll have a hit a couple of really important milestones towards getting everybody vaccinated and getting through this pandemic."

The MP's video was met with several comments from local constituents who were asking when they or their loved-ones would hear about getting their vaccine.

One user commented: "My gran is 94 and she still hasn’t had any news about when she’s getting the vaccine in Plympton."

Another said: "How I hope this to be true! My mother is 81 , severely immunosuppressed and has heard nothing yet from her GP."

Latest figures from NHS England show nearly 500,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered to patients across the South West.

Of those, more than 400,000 of them have been first doses.

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