About 400 people a day are receiving the new coronavirus vaccination at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Brighton.
They are mainly outpatients over 80, staff at higher risk of contracting covid-19 and staff working in higher-risk areas as well as people working in care homes.
Anecdotally, there are suggestions that the daily rate of vaccinations is among the highest in the south east and possibly even the whole country.
The news comes as staff at the Royal Sussex help with the first tranche of 800,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab.
The doses should provide enough to reduce the risk of catching the virus for 400,000 people as each person is expected to have two injections.
And work is going on behind the scenes to be able to vaccinate more people at the Brighton Centre and some family doctors’ surgeries although no firm dates have been announced.
Public health chiefs today said that the latest covid figures suggested that rates were stable in Brighton and Hove.
Brighton and Hove City Council said: “In the seven days up to Friday 4 December (based on data published on Wednesday 9 December) there were 173 confirmed new covid-19 cases in Brighton and Hove.
“This is very similar to the rate in the previous week. It is equivalent to a weekly rate of new cases of 59.5 per 100,000 residents. It is lower than the rate for England of 151 per 100,000, and the south east of 156.9 per 100,000.”
Public health consultant Katie Cuming said: “We know the big reduction in cases seen after lockdown was due to less mixing of people and less mixing between households.
“But as people start to go out more there is a risk that infection rates could increase again.
“It is very good news that the vaccination programme has started. Health care staff and the over 80s are starting to receive theirs this week at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.”
Dr Cuming added: “At this time of year shops and public spaces can get very busy. But it is possible to prepare for the Christmas holiday in a covid-safe way.
“When shopping, try to avoid busy times and always think ‘hands, face, space’. Travel on foot, bike or in your own vehicle when possible. If you must lift-share or travel on public transport, wear a face covering, keep apart and open windows.
“If you experience any covid-related symptoms, even if very mild, do not go shopping. You must immediately self-isolate with your household and apply for a test to stop covid infecting more people.
“It is crucial that we all continue to closely follow the ‘tier 2’ guidelines to maintain what we have achieved – and to stop covid from spreading widely in the city.”
The government said today (Thursday 10 December) that 516 more people had died in the UK after having covid-19 diagnosed in the previous 28 days.
This took the total to 63,082 although the Office for National Statistics said that 79,000 death certificates mentioned the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.
And a further 20,964 cases of covid-19 were confirmed today, making a cumulative total of 1,787,783.
I hope this speeds up. At this rate it will take a year to vaccinate half the population of Brighton. It would be good to have a leader board so we can see how many more people are left a day and there should be huge competitions to see which City can vaccinate the most people.