A COVID vaccine has been offered to residents at every eligible care home in England, the NHS has announced.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the achievement, expected to be confirmed by official figures on Monday, as a “crucial milestone” reports the BBC.

A target of 15 February has been set for the UK to vaccinate care home residents and carers, people over 70 and frontline care workers.

On Saturday a record 598,389 first jabs were given across the UK.

It means nearly nine million people have received the first dose of a vaccine, with about 490,000 having received two jabs.

NHS England said more than 10,000 care homes with older residents had been offered vaccines, although a “small remainder” of homes had visits deferred by local public health directors for safety reasons during local outbreaks.

These will be visited by vaccinators as soon as NHS staff are allowed to do so, it said.

Mr Johnson said vaccines were the “route out of the pandemic” but warned there will be “difficult moments to come” with the number of cases and people in hospital still “dangerously high”.

“Today marks a crucial milestone in our ongoing race to vaccinate the most vulnerable against this deadly disease,” he said.

The Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation (JCVI) sets which groups are prioritised for vaccinations, with residents in care homes and their carers in the top group.

All those over 70 years old, clinically extremely vulnerable people and frontline health and social care workers make up the top four groups which the government has said should be inoculated by mid-February.

Care Minister Helen Whately said the government was working “on what we can do to try and enable visiting to restart” in care homes.

Asked if they would have to wait until residents had received both doses of the vaccine, she told BBC Breakfast: “I’m not saying that”, but she added that “at the moment it’s too soon” to allow indoor visiting as it takes time “to build up immunity”.

In Scotland, the government has said the programme for first doses for care home residents, frontline health and social care workers and those aged 80 and over would be completed by 5 February.

Around 75% of care home residents in Wales have had their first jab, while in Northern Ireland the government has said 100% of care homes have received a first dose.

Liz Kendall, shadow social care minister, said that after the “appalling loss of life in care homes” it was “very good news” that vaccines had been offered to all elderly care home residents.

“We are in a race against time against this awful virus and ministers must leave no stone overturned to vaccinate all social care staff within the next two weeks,” she added.

Labour has previously called for teachers to be moved up the JCVI priority list and said February half-term should be used to vaccinate teaching staff.

The vaccinations committee has said early vaccination of certain professions should be considered – but only once those in the top nine priority groups have been offered a first jab.

The news was welcomed by the care sector, with Care UK chief executive Andrew Knight saying almost all the company’s residents had been offered a jab and “the majority of our colleagues” had been vaccinated.

Sam Monaghan, chief executive of leading care home group MHA, said the government’s decision to increase the gap between the first and second doses of the vaccines to 12 weeks had been “difficult” and he hoped the second dose could be accelerated “so that we can look at reuniting residents with their relatives”.

He also called for the government to provide “clarity” on what would be possible in care homes once people have had both doses of the vaccination, adding: “People have been separated for such a long time.”

Fiona Carragher, director of research and influencing at Alzheimer’s Society, said it was “great” the milestone had been met but she remained concerned that the staff vaccination rollout “has not been nearly so effective”.

“The most pressing question now is how and when can care homes restart safe, meaningful visits. Combined with PPE and testing, isn’t one jab enough? If not, what else needs to be in place? Another 12-week wait is unacceptable for people dying of loneliness,” she said.

Dr Mike Tildesley, an infectious disease expert who advises the government, said that if the UK continues the current pace with vaccinations – and jabs are shown to prevent transmission, not just severe infection – measures could begin to be eased in March.

“We need to be very careful,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme . “Hopefully by the summer we can get back to something pretty close to what we have seen before the pandemic as normal.”

Vaccines would need to be “pretty good” at blocking transmission “to avoid a resurgence” of the virus when measures are eased, Dr Tildesley added, with research due on this over the next month.

A further 587 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test were reported on Sunday.

It takes the UK’s total by that measure to 106,158, although the number of reported deaths tends to be lower over the weekend.