More than 30,000 Cheshire West residents 'have been vaccinated' against Covid-19, according to council leader Louise Gittins.

Cllr Gittins tweeted this morning (January 22): "Vaccination alert!! Calculator has been busy all night and I think about 31,000 people have been vaccinated across Cheshire West."

Later on, she also suggested that '72 per cent of our over 80s' have received at least their first vaccine dose.

Cllr Gittins added that the figures was a 'guesstimate' and 'not official', and also praised the work of the Cheshire West integrated care partnership NHS Cheshire clinical commissioning group — the body organising the county's vaccine programme.

Cheshire West's population, according to 2019 Office for National Statistics estimates, is 339,824.

Should Cllr Gittins' forecast be correct, it means around 9.1 per cent of residents have had their jab.

Her comments come following Cheshire health chiefs indicated they were open to the possibility of a mass vaccination centre in the county, much like those in St Helens and Manchester.

NHS Cheshire CCG Director of Strategy and Partnerships,Tracey Cole, said the organisation was 'looking at all the options' in terms of increasing capacity at a board meeting yesterday (January 21).

She told the board: "We are looking at all the options. What is the best way to provide this vaccine across Cheshire is one that fits with our population.

"We have not ruled that out… There are further discussions today with partners with what those options are. If we need those [mass] sites we will put forward to have them."

NHS England data shows that 201,220 Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Cheshire and Merseyside.