All care home residents in Alsager should receive their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine by the end of January, a local health group has said.

The SMASH Care Community group, which helps coordinate community healthcare across the local area (Sandbach, Middlewich, Alsager, Scholar Green and Haslington), is expected to get its first batches of the vaccines on Thursday (7 January).

Alsager will act as the hub for the rollout to local nursing homes across three clinics over Friday and Saturday morning and work is underway to phone eligible patients to book for those sessions.

SMASH is expecting to receive 975 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 400 from AstraZeneca with more to follow in the proceeding weeks.

A post on the Sandbach GPs Facebook page said: "On Friday some of the Pfizer vaccines will go direct from hub site to nursing homes across SMASH to vaccinate as many as possible - we aim to have all nursing home patients done by end of Jan (supply dependent)."

Nub News reported yesterday (4 January) an Alsager-based GP practice will start Covid-19 vaccinations within the next fortnight.