NHS Dumfries and Galloway has announced that more than half of all adults in the region have now had both of their Covid-19 vaccine jabs.

Dr Nigel Calvert, the authority's immunisation co-ordinator said: “Fantastic progress has been made in rolling out the second dose vaccination to those people in our communities who are among the most vulnerable to the effects of Covid.

“A second dose provides them with the highest and longer lasting degree of protection.

“However, I know that many people across health and social care are anxious to see all adults get a vaccine.

“This will not only help protect them and our wider communities, but is needed to support the continuing moves out of lockdown.

“As ever, our ability to progress is linked to the national availability of vaccine supplies.

“Because of work that’s been undertaken to vaccinate people who are clinically at risk, who are an unpaid Carer or working in a person-facing role in health and social care, we’ve now actually already vaccinated 16,323 people in our population aged under 50 – which is 31.4 per cent of the population aged 16 to 49."

As of May 11, a total of 63,968 second dose vaccinations had been delivered, representing 50.7 per cent of people in the region.