The Lincolnshire vaccination programme is making 'excellent progress' and moving on to lower groups.

Lincolnshire NHS Clinical Commissioning Group has now moved on to cohorts five and six,

Cohort 5 is all those 65 years of age and over.

Cohort 6 is those aged 16-64 with an underlying health condition which puts them at a higher risk of serious illness or death.

A spokesman said: "We are making excellent progress with the covid vaccination programme across Lincolnshire. Following the successful completion of vaccinations for people aged 70 and over (the first four cohorts), we are now vaccinating people in cohorts five and six.

"If you are in either cohort five or six you may already have received a letter inviting you to book your vaccination. As with the previous cohorts, you have the choice to either:

· Have your vaccination at a Local Vaccination Site via your local GP services, who will contact you directly if they haven't already done so, or;

· Book an appointment at a Large Vaccination Centre, either via online Book a coronavirus vaccination - NHS (www.nhs.uk) or the national telephone number 119."

The spokesman continued: "If you receive the letter but have already booked your vaccination, you do not need to do anything else – you can ignore the letter and attend for your vaccination as per your appointment.

"Please do not contact your GP practice unless they have specifically asked you to (by writing, texting or emailing you). Your practice will contact you when it is your turn to be vaccinated, and is busy dealing with people who require care for clinical issues.

"You should only attend for vaccination if you have an appointment booked – you will not be vaccinated without an appointment. In addition, if you are experiencing covid symptoms of any kind, or self-isolating, please do not attend for vaccination. You will be rebooked when it is safe for you to attend."

"We are committed to vaccinating everyone as quickly as possible. We know that there has been some reporting nationally about practices focusing on people in cohort six, however, we would like to reassure people in Lincolnshire that everyone in cohorts five and six will receive their vaccination."

The CCG also said: "If you have been identified as one of the additional 1.7 million people required to shield until the end of March, the NHS will contact you to arrange your vaccination if you have not already had your first dose.

"There have been some patients who have requested their second vaccination date is moved, however, your date is linked to when you had your first vaccination, so we would ask you to keep the date you have been given. If you have not been given a date, please be assured the NHS will be in touch with you to arrange this.

The spokesman added: "Finally, please be kind to our staff - they are there to help you and are doing an amazing job. We are aware of reports of staff, both in practices and at vaccination sites, being verbally abused. Abuse of any kind will not be tolerated and will be dealt with appropriately."

Last week, more than 200,000 vaccinations had been carried out in total across Lincolnshire, as reported by Nub News.