NHS Orkney has announced it will begin vaccinating the last segment of the islands’ adult population against Covid by the end of May.
Letters will be sent out to those aged between 18 and 29 imminently, inviting them to visit the Balfour Hospital in Kirkwall to receive their first dose.
Those doses will be administered on May 29 and 30 and June 5.
With this expansion, Orkney will become only the second part of the UK to offer the Covid vaccine to all over-18s, after the Western Isles allowed all adults to make an appointment from last week.
Orkney’s health board is currently sending out vaccine invitations to patients aged 30-50.
By the end of next week, those who received their first vaccine at Kirkwall’s Pickaquoy Leisure Centre will get a letter telling them where to go to receive the second dose.
Rapid roll-out
Around 6,500 island residents are due to be vaccinated over the course of May – more than 200 every day.
A post on the NHS Orkney Facebook page said: “We would therefore please ask that you attend at the time you are given unless you have an urgent reason to ask for this to be rescheduled.
“This will make our logistics and planning so much easier.”
Nearly two thirds of Orkney’s population (65.25%) have received their first dose of the vaccine, the second-highest percentage among Scottish health boards behind only the Western Isles.
However, less than 30% of the population has had a second dose, putting the islands behind not just the Western Isles, but also Shetland, the Highlands, the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway.