Coronavirus Scotland: NHS Lanarkshire reaches milestone of 200,000 doses of the vaccine

Dr Mark Russell, Lead for the Covid-19 vaccination programme in Lanarkshire, said: “Our staff have been working incredibly hard and we’ve administered 100,000 doses in February alone.

“Both the public and NHS Lanarkshire want our residents vaccinated quickly, so to help increase the pace of our local programme we are amending our current plan to vaccinate people as fast and as safely as possible.”

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The health board will have two supercentres at Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility in Motherwell and the Alastair McCoist Complex in East Kilbride. seven local centres and mobile units from next Monday.

The supercentres will together have the capacity to vaccinate more than 50,000 people each week.

The health board said: "Lanarkshire has had a high incidence of Covid-19 and our new plans will allow us to protect our communities as quickly as possible.

"Our amended delivery model will also allow us to be more flexible and adapt to vaccine supply. It means that we can increase our pace of vaccination while keeping the programme safe, effective and efficient."

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Dr Russell, added: “Up until now our programme has been tailored to vaccinate the most at-risk members of our community, in centres close to their homes. The new model will start as we move through priority group 6 and will remain in place for the other groups. Initially, all appointments will be at the supercentres. People can choose to reschedule their appointment to one of the local centres, however there will be a wait for these.

“We would strongly encourage people who can attend their appointment at a supercentre, to do so. This will protect the local centres for those who cannot travel. Travelling to a supercentre will enable people to receive their vaccination sooner than they would otherwise."