by Local Democracy Reporter Marie Sharp

Health teams across East Lothian began heading out to vaccinate care home residents on Thursday.

Krista Clubb, the county’s vaccination service manager, took to social media to share a picture of one team ready to go, with trolleys loaded with vac packs and equipment.

The image, which had one box clearly labelled for Muirfield Care Home, Gullane, was accompanied with praise for the staff who have mobilised to get the vaccinations out to those most at risk.

Sharing the picture on Twitter, Krista said: “East Lothian all ready to vaccinate our first care residents against Covid-19 today.

“Fantastic work from our amazing care home team and pharmacy colleagues getting this all prepared so quickly.”

The move into care homes comes as the county prepares to move back into Level 3 restrictions on Friday after a rise in Covid cases in recent weeks.

Wednesday’s updated figures revealed that 155 new positive Covid cases had been recorded in the county in the week up to December 14, taking the rate per 100,000 people to 144.7 and making the percentage of positive results 6.6 per cent – well above the 5 per cent which the World Health Organisation considers the threshold for whether transmission is under control.

Cases remain clustered in the west of the county, with the number of positive tests registered in Musselburgh, Tranent and Prestonpans pushing the towns’ seven-day rate above 200 cases per 100,000 people during the same week.

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The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) is a public service news agency. It is funded by the BBC, provided by the local news sector (in Edinburgh that is Reach plc (the publisher behind Edinburgh Live and The Daily Record) and used by many qualifying partners. Local Democracy Reporters cover news about top-tier local authorities and other public service organisations.