Almost two million people aged 60 to 63 will be invited to book a Covid jab this week as the NHS vaccination programme, the biggest in health service history, gains fresh momentum.

The letters will start landing on doormats tomorrow (Monday) explaining how they can make an appointment to get jabbed through the national booking service.

They have been sent after more than three in four people aged 65 to 70 took up the offer of a vaccination.

In all, more than 16.5 million people across England, over a third of the adult population, have now received the jab.

People are being invited to be vaccinated in order of risk, which increases with age.

The latest batch of invites arriving this week will mean everyone in the first seven priority groups will have been offered a jab, with people aged between 50 and 60 set to be invited shortly.

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Professor Stephen Powis, the NHS’s national medical director, said: “The NHS vaccination programme, the biggest in the health service’s history and fastest in Europe, goes from strength to strength.

“I would like to thank my colleagues across the NHS, along with all the volunteers and others working on the programme, for their hard work which has seen more than 17 million jabs given in a matter of weeks.

“I would urge anyone who has been invited to take up the offer – it doesn’t matter when you were invited you can still come forward and protect yourself and others.”

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The latest invites come after the NHS wrote to almost 450,000 people age 64, along with 600,000 who have recently been asked to shield, last week.

The push to get as many of the most at-risk people protected means nine in ten people in the top four priority groups have received a jab.

Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said: "Since around four fifths of 65-69 year olds have now been vaccinated, we're rapidly working our way down the generations, with people ages 60+ now able to come forward.

“As expected vaccine supply increases in March, we're planning for further acceleration as we head towards Easter."

People can use the national booking service to reserve a slot at one of more than NHS Vaccination Centres, at Stithians Showground or the Royal Cornwall Showground in Cornwall, or almost 200 pharmacy-led services across the country, including in Truro and Roche.

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The booking service can be accessed at http://www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination. Those who cannot go online can call 119 free of charge.

NHS teams are visiting those who are housebound and cannot travel to a vaccination service.

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

Everyone will receive a health status check and a pre-vaccination assessment before they have their jab.