IT has been announced today that Covid-19 vaccinations are now available for people aged 50 and over, as the programme marks its 100th day.

While the whole of the NHS doubles down to urge everyone already invited to take up the offer, new invitations are now going out nationally to millions of people aged 50 to 54 in the latest stage of the programme, the biggest in NHS history and fastest in Europe.

Today (March 17) marks 100 days since the NHS gave Maggie Keenan her first dose of the Covid-19 vaccination on December 8 last year, and broke ground in the global race to protect people against the coronavirus.

Healthcare teams continue to urge anyone yet to be vaccinated to take up the offer as around two million additional text messages go out from today with a link allowing people also to pick a convenient slot at an NHS vaccine centre, or pharmacy-led service through the national booking service website.

People who cannot go online can call the service on 119.

The text alerts will be followed up with 2.4 million letters landing on doorsteps later in the week.

The NHS has already delivered a vaccine to more than 20 million people in England and they are committed to offering vaccinations as quickly as available supply allows in the coming weeks.

The latest batch of national invites follows a significant boost to bookings last week, with a major push by text message and letter prompting slots booked almost to double in 48 hours from 340,000 on March 7 to 609,000 on March 9 when texts were sent.

Text invitations appear as an alert from ‘NHSvaccine’, including a web link to click and reserve an appointment at one of more than 300 large-scale vaccination centres or pharmacies across England. Text invites will also be received from local booking services through a GP-led team.

Vaccinations are now being administered at more than 1,600 sites across the country, including mosques, museums and rugby grounds, with the distribution of centres meaning 98 per cent of the country lives within 10 miles of at least one vaccination service.

Appointments are staggered to allow for social distancing and people are being asked not to turn up early to avoid creating queues.