A health chief thanked vaccination teams across Cambridgeshire as they marked one year since the first Covid-19 vaccine was delivered in the county.

Since a retired care home worker received the first Covid vaccine at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge last December, nearly 1.6 million doses have been administered.

Dr Gary Howsam, clinical chair at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), praised those who have been part of the rollout so far.

“I want to take a moment to say a heartfelt thank you to every person who has been a part of this phenomenal effort to date,” he said.

“There is no doubt in my mind that your work has helped save lives.”

In Ely and surrounding areas, GP practices helped deliver the one hundredth thousandth Covid vaccine, which was hailed as a “wonderful milestone” by one doctor.

Dr Anthony Gunstone is a GP at Staploe Medical Practice in Soham, which delivered the 100,000th vaccine last month.

“We have now delivered over 100,000 vaccinations at our vaccination clinics in Ely, and we are still offering more patients the life-saving vaccine every week,” said Dr Gunstone.

“We couldn’t have done this without the fantastic efforts of both our staff and our amazing volunteers, so I’d like to give my thanks to everyone who has been involved in the vaccination programme in Ely.

“Your work has saved lives.”

By this week, 118,630,479 vaccines have been administered in the UK, over 50m of those being first doses.

MP Steve Barclay also said that “38,553 in North East Cambridgeshire alone” have received a Covid-19 booster jab so far.

However, there is a push for more volunteers in a bid to continue the progress of the vaccine rollout.

Dr David Vickers is a medical director for Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust which runs the large-scale vaccination centres across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

“It’s simply inspirational and my heartfelt thanks go to each of them,” he said.

“We really need more staff and volunteers to work in our centres to deliver even more protection to our communities, so please do get in touch.”

To find out where your nearest Covid-19 walk-in vaccination centre is, visit: https://www.thevaccinators.co.uk/.

To book appointments, go to: www.nhs.uk/covidvaccine or call 119.