Covid: Isle of Man vaccine gap will not be shortened

Almost 80,000 vaccine doses have so far been administered on the island

The gap between doses of coronavirus vaccine on the Isle of Man will remain at 10-12 weeks.

Health Minister David Ashford said the delivery schedule for supplies of the jabs meant there was "little scope" to shorten the timeframe.

Last week the UK cut the wait from 12 weeks to eight for the over-50s amid concern over the Indian variant.

Mr Ashford said the island was already moving faster than the UK in terms of completing second doses for over-50s.

More than 18,500 of the 74,000 people earmarked for the jab have now received both doses, and about 82% of all adults have received at least one.

Mr Ashford told Tynwald appointments had been "very tightly booked" based on existing supplies to "ensure very little vaccine wastage".

Second doses for everyone over the age of 50 were already booked to be completed by early July, and shortening the gap would lead to the need for 18,000 appointments to be manually changed, he added.