NHS Lanarkshire has now competed administering the latest dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to eligible care home residents.

The first health board in Scotland to vaccinate care home residents against Covid-19, NHS Lanarkshire has now vaccinated more than 3,000 residents with both the Covid-19 booster and Flu vaccines.

Lesley Thomson, South Lanarkshire Health & Social Care Partnership nurse director, said: “This Covid-19 booster and the Flu vaccines will play an important role in providing a further layer of protection for care home residents.

“Care home residents are amongst our most vulnerable residents and I know it will be greatly reassuring to residents, their loved ones and staff that they have now received both vaccines.

“From the very outset of the Covid-19 pandemic health and social care staff have worked closely with care home staff to keep residents as safe as possible and this is another significant milestone in this journey.

“The care home vaccination programme has been carried out as quickly as possible. Each step of the programme has further highlighted just how dedicated and flexible our staff and care staff are in protecting residents.”

As part of the vaccination programme planning process it was acknowledged that there will be a small number of residents who were not eligible to receive the vaccines at the planned time. This can be for a number of reasons such as being unwell on the day of vaccination or are new residents.

As a result, further visits to care homes are taking place to ensure all residents are fully vaccinated as they become eligible.