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More GP surgeries will start issuing coronavirus vaccines after additional centres were set up and approved by NHS bosses.
The extra eight in towns across Covid-hit Kent now bring the total to 17 after the first nine started giving out jabs from Tuesday.
The "second wave" is up and running with the NHS now contacting more patients to invite them to attend a vaccine appointment.
Practices in Ashford, Gillingham, Northfleet and Maidstone joined the first centres which opened this week.
The second tranche of centres are at:
The vaccination programme at surgeries in Kent and Medway is being managed by the Kent and Medway NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) with each surgery taking part directly commissioned by NHS England.
The primary care networks (PCNs) have been set up across Kent to issue the Pfizer vaccine to the most at risk patients from the virus.
Based on national prioritisation lists, the first vaccines available will be issued to high risk NHS staff, social care workers and patients aged over 80.
Along with the GP surgeries, two of Kent's largest hospitals – the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham – are now running as vaccination hubs and storing the vaccine in ultra-low temperature freezers.
Due to the specific storage requirements for the vaccine – it has to remain frozen at -70C – only hospitals, universities, research labs and very few sites have the equipment to store the vaccine safely.
One it is thawed, the doses must be used within five days or they are not effective.
The CCG says more surgeries will be added in the New Year as increasing supplies are made available. Each site is understood to have received an initial 975 doses.
But health chiefs have warned the vaccination programme is a "marathon not a sprint" and that it will take several months to be rolled out to the one million residents in Kent.
The government is receiving 800,000 doses in the first shipment from Pfizer but has already ordered 40 million doses – enough for 20 million people.
The full list of surgeries covered by the PCNs operating a vaccination service is as follows:
Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital, Herne Bay
Abbey Court Medical Centre, Tunbridge Wells
Sheerness Health Centre, Sheerness
Mocketts Wood, Broadstairs
Swanscombe Health Centre, Swanscombe
Len Valley Branch Surgery, Maidstone
Long Catlis Road Surgery, Rainham
Montefiore Centre, Ramsgate
Avicenna Medical Centre, West Malling
Charing Surgery
Blackthorn Medical Centre, Maidstone
Musgrove Park Medical Centre, Ashford
Greensands Branch Surgery (Loose)
Meopham Medical Centre
Woodlands Family Practice, Gillingham
Building B, Fleet Health Centre
For more information about the Covid-19 vaccine in Kent and Medway visit the CCG website.
