ALL Ceredigion residents over the age of 50 being offered the coronavirus vaccine by Easter is the “ambition” of Hywel Dda Health Board, its Director of Public Health has said.

As mass vaccination centres in Cardigan and Aberystwyth, along with GP surgeries, continue to offer jobs to those in high priority groups, with more than 10,000 Ceredigion residents now vaccinated, Ros Jervis, Director of Public Health at Hywel Dda said the “ambition is to offer everyone in priority groups 1 to 9 a vaccine by Easter.”

Priority groups 1 to 9 encompass everyone over the age of 50.

Hywel Dda said that people aged 70 to 74 years old and those identified as clinically extremely vulnerable will be contacted by their GP practices to receive their first dose of the vaccine “this week”, while all 75 to 79-year-olds have been invited to an appointment, with the last of the invitation letters to that group being sent on Tuesday.

At the same time, GPs will be completing or ensuring they have contacted all over 80-year-olds in their areas, and have also been busy vaccinating older adult care home residents, with more than 90 per cent having been given the jab.

The health board said it is “confident” that all over 70s will have received the first jab by mid-February.

Ros Jervis, Director of Public Health at Hywel Dda University Health Board, said: “We understand that people are anxious to receive their vaccine as soon as possible.

“We thank everyone for their ongoing patience as we work our way through our priority groups, with the ambition to offer everyone in priority groups 1 to 9 a vaccine by Easter.”

Chief Executive of Hywel Dda, Steve Moore, said the health board is “aiming to offer the vaccine to 100 per cent of people in the priority groups and realistically expect to achieve about 75 per cent of the population overall getting vaccinated.”

“The high take-up we are seeing amongst the priority groups - where we can make the greatest difference to protecting the most vulnerable from death or serious harm from COVID-19 - is therefore really encouraging and we are confident we will reach the target of offering vaccination to people in priority groups 1-4 by mid-February.”

“We are rolling out this vaccination programme as quickly as we can, with teams working incredibly hard, and using all our strengths as an integrated health system.

“Our aim is to ensure we reach everyone in the highest priority groups as quickly as possible and as close to home as possible recognising the different types of vaccine at our disposal and likely supply levels.

“That is why some groups will be vaccinated in their local GPs surgery and others at mass vaccination centres, sometimes concurrently.”