Nottinghamshire hospital celebrates Covid vaccine anniversary

Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust has delivered 178,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine

A hospital trust has marked one year since it administered its first coronavirus vaccine.

Ann Allen, 83, was the first person to have the jab at the vaccination centre in King's Mill Hospital in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire.

She was invited back to celebrate the anniversary and cut a specially-made cake.

Staff at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust have now delivered 178,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was the first one to be approved by the Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation, and people over the age of 80 were offered it first.

Margaret Keenan was the first person in the world to have the vaccine outside of clinical trials.

Ms Allen had her vaccine on the same day and said getting vaccinated was the right thing to do.

"I think we've got to live with it. It's an illness that is here for good.

"If people follow the guidelines and have their vaccinations, I think we'll keep top side of it," she said.

Ann Allen was the first person to be vaccinated at King's Mill Hospital

Kim Kirk, who runs the vaccine centre at King's Mill Hospital, said it had been a "unique and rewarding" programme to work on.

The centre performs about 1,000 jabs a day but Ms Kirk said they can do more if necessary.

"We're ready to increase capacity, our teams here are fantastic and want to be part of the vaccine programme for the months ahead," she said.