Prime Minister praises parts of Lincolnshire for care home residents vaccinations

In a press briefing, Mr Johnson paid particular praise to “Northwest Lincolnshire,” where he said vaccination teams had protected more than 80 per cent of care home residents.

He said: “It’s thanks to that amazing constellation of vaccination teams, doctors, nurses, armed forces, local authorities, pharmacies, volunteers that we’re steadily building up that immunity — that protection for the NHS, for us all.”

During the briefing Mr Johnson confirmed that more than 3.2 million people across the UK had received their first dose of vaccine.

Almost 45 per cent of the figures are those over the age of 80, and 40 per cent nationally are care home residents.

“We are steadily protecting those most at risk,” said Mr Johnson.

The briefing also saw the PM announce the closure of all air travel corridors across the UK from Monday, January 18.

The move will initially last for a month though will be kept under review.

Under the new measures, anyone arriving in the UK must quarantine for ten days or undertake a test on day five.

It follows the appearance of a number of new variants of Covid-19 which are recognised to be more transmissible than the previous version.

The government had originally banned flights from South America and Portugal due to a new strain in Brazil however brought in the new measures in a bid to “protect us against the risk of as yet unidentified strains”.

Lincolnshire County Council also confirmed 36 per cent of tests contained the mutated virus and North East Lincolnshire’s latest epidemiology report showed 40 per cent – working out to an average of 38 per cent.

The UK strain of Covid-19 is believed to be up to 70 per cent more transmissible than the first circulating form of the virus.

North East Lincolnshire has successfully kept its infection rates down below the national average and remains the lowest district in Greater Lincolnshire.

However, up to January 13, all areas in the region saw increases to their infection rates.

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