A small army of Covid vaccinators is being trained in York this weekend as the fight to get people innoculated as quickly as possible steps up.

St Peter’s School has been turned into a St John Ambulance Covid vaccination training centre. Four ventilated training rooms have been set aside - so that training can be done in a  socially-distanced manner  - and the charity hopes to train up to 90 of its first aiders today, and a similar number tomorrow, in how to administer the Covid jab.

The school will continued to be used as a weekend Covid jab training centre for up to nine weeks, with sessions each Saturday and Sunday. Each volunteer's training is completed in a single day.

St Peter’s headmaster Jeremy Walker said: “I am so glad that we can support St John Ambulance in their vital work and play a small part in helping the rapid rollout of the vaccination programme.”

The school is one of more than 20 sites across the country to be selected as a Covid Vaccination Training Centre by St John Ambulance.

The organisation says almost 5,000 volunteers are now administering injections and supporting people through the vaccination process as carers and advocates, with many more joining their ranks every day.

Existing groups of St John Ambulance volunteers have been bolstered by recruitment from people the charity have trained in first aid, along with thousands of NHS volunteer responders.

So many people have come forward to volunteer that St John has now had to pause recruitment to the programme.

"But the charity is now working hard to get thousands of applicants interviewed, trained and ready to deploy by March 31, ready to carry on delivering vaccinations through to the end of June 2021," a spokesperson said.