Covid: Peaky Blinders' Black Country Museum is vaccine hub

The Black Country Living Museum normally gives visitors a taste of ordinary life in the Victorian era

A venue that has doubled as a set for TV series Peaky Blinders is to operate as a Covid-19 vaccination centre.

Using Black Country Living Museum, a largely open-air site, to deliver jabs is said to be a "game-changer" for the local community.

The Dudley attraction, which is closed to tourists during lockdown, is expected to help administer thousands of injections a week.

People are reminded they need an NHS letter of invitation before turning up.

The formal appointments will initially prioritise doses for people most at risk of complications from the virus.

The latest figures from NHS England showed 97,310 Covid jabs had been administered in Dudley and the surrounding area by Thursday - the second highest amount in the Midlands.

But rollout at the museum - which begins on Monday - will see it become Dudley's first vaccination centre.

It will complement existing GP-led vaccination services which are already up and running locally.

Cillian Murphy stars in Peaky Blinders, a Birmingham-set drama filmed in part at the museum

The museum normally gives visitors a taste of life in the Black Country during bygone days and has been used as a location for Peaky Blinders, the BBC TV series set in nearby Birmingham in the early 20th Century.

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Saying the step was a game-changer, Nicholas Barlow, Dudley Council member for health, said: "Having the Black Country Living Museum on board as a vaccination centre will greatly increase the amount of jabs we can deliver, and the speed at which we can administer them.

"It will make people safer from this deadly virus more quickly."

Sally Roberts, Black Country and West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group chief nurse, said: "Our progress [in the area] to date has been incredible and I am delighted that our first vaccination centre, which will be capable of delivering thousands more vaccines each week, is going live."