Practices have been praised for the “wonderful” achievement of ensuring that almost every care home in England has now been offered COVID-19 vaccination.

The programme has reached more than 10,000 care homes and the only ones omitted have been told to wait by local public health departments because of local outbreaks. Alongside outreach to care homes, GPs are now running more than a thousand vaccination centres alongside 250 hospital-based centres, 47 major centres and 117 pharmacies.

NHS England primary care director Dr Nikki Kanani said: “I want to thank my colleagues, and everyone involved in the vaccine rollout for their extraordinary work in recent weeks, as it is because of their tireless efforts that millions of people have already been vaccinated, including hundreds of thousands of care home residents, and as a result we are a vital step further in our fight against COVID-19. It has been a privilege to vaccinate some of the most vulnerable people and the wonderful people who look after them. Many have had little contact with the outside world throughout the pandemic and so it has been truly humbling for all, giving them hope and importantly protection against the disease.”

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said: “The delivery of the vaccine to all care homes for older people is a wonderful achievement and one that pays testament to the hard work of care home staff and our colleagues in the NHS and Local Authorities. We now look forward to working in partnership to deliver the government’s ambitious programme for administration of the second dose and rolling the programme out to people with learning disabilities living in care homes and supported living settings.”

Danny Mortimer, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, warned: “The efforts of the whole NHS, and especially primary care, to ensure those who are most vulnerable are protected first have been truly humbling. However, the figures only show how many care home residents have been offered a jab, not how many have been vaccinated. We’re still a way off protecting everyone, and unless staff are also protected, the threat from the virus will remain.

“While cases may be coming down, infection levels and demands on the NHS are still high overall, including as a result of new variants. Today, we have learned that door-to-door COVID testing is being rolled out in some parts of the country to try to halt the further spread of the South African variant. It is imperative that we get a grip on this, especially as we seek to establish whether the approved vaccines are as effective against some mutated COVID strains.”