A MAJORITY of residents and workers at Southend care homes have now received their coronavirus vaccinations, according to an experienced doctor.

Dr Jose Garcia Lobera is a GP serving the Leigh-on-Sea area and also acts as the chairman of the NHS’s Southend Clinical Commissioning Group.

Last Saturday he spent the day administering Covid-19 vaccines at homes across the district alongside staff from the Pall Mall surgery.

At the time, the total number of care homes in Southend which had been fully vaccinated stood at an impressive 11 after a week of relentless frontline work.

Promisingly, Dr Jose Garcia Lobera has now confirmed a majority of the district’s care home jabs have now been completed.

Writing on Twitter he said: “Thanks to the fab Pall Mall Surgery teams today. Almost all care home patients and staff done. I am privileged, everyone is very grateful.”

The reassuring step forward comes after health secretary Matt Hancock said more than half of people over the age of 80 have now had their vaccination.

Writing on Twitter he said: "I'm delighted that over half of all over-80s have been vaccinated.

"Each jab brings us one step closer to normal. Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives."

Building on the claims of his colleague, Dominic Raab has also said he hopes 88 per cent of those most at risk of dying from coronavirus will receive their first jab by the middle of February, and 99 per cent by the early spring.

The foreign secretary has also pledged that every adult in the UK will be offered a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine by September.

Mr Raab said it would be “great” if the rollout could be faster but that the Government was working to the early autumn target.

He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “Our target is by September to have offered all the adult population a first dose.

"If we can do it faster than that, great, but that’s the roadmap.”