More than 10,000 people have registered their interest in vaccination against the coronavirus, the health minister revealed last night.

White people outnumbered Black people in getting vaccinated, with 5,430 White, 1,534 Black, 889 mixed race and 2,838 unspecified.

Ms Wilson said: ”To reach herd immunity we need many more people to get vaccinated.“

Herd immunity will be achieved when 60 to 70 per cent of the population get the coronavirus jab.

David Burt, the Premier, welcomed the increase in the number of Black people who had registered.

He appealed to people to ignore bogus social media advisories and to learn the science behind vaccines - which he said were safe.

Ms Wilson asked people to stop showing up at vaccine centres without an appointment.

She said walk-ins had caused significant delays at the Prospect vaccine centre and asked people to wait their turn.

She confirmed that health and safety rules, including a 15-minute wait for monitoring after receiving the vaccine, were in place.

Epinephrine injectors are also on hand in case of a severe allergic reaction.

Ms Wilson said 2,932 people had been vaccinated in the week to last Saturday.

She added 1,227 or 42 per cent were male and 1,705 or 58 per cent were female.

A total of 608 people were aged 80 or over and 294 were rest home residents.

A total of 799 were essential workers – 34 per cent of all eligible and 602 of them healthcare workers – 25 per cent of those eligible.

Ms Wilson admitted: “We still have a long way to go before critical groups in high risk areas are safely vaccinated.”

She added more vaccination centres were needed in addition to the Prospect centre and the hospital vaccination centre, which opened yesterday, if Bermuda was to reach its goal of 800 vaccinations a day and a total of 19,000 by the end of March.

Ms Wilson said earlier that two new coronavirus cases were recorded today out of 543 test results that came back to health officials.

There are now 30 active cases.

Five people are in hospital, but none are in intensive care and six people have recovered from the illness.

The two new positives were people who had recently travelled.

One arrived from the Azores on January 16 and tested positive on their Day 8 test.

The other was a passenger on a flight from New York who tested positive on arrival last Sunday.

Ms Wilson said the seven-day average of the real-time reproduction number was 0.23 and Bermuda's country status remained at “sporadic cases”.

She added people who had recovered from Covid-19 would be eligible to get the vaccine and said they should register for it.

Ms Wilson said all registrations had to be vetted by medical personnel, which was a manual process - which slowed the system.

She added that the Cayman Islands had vaccinated higher numbers of its people.

But she highlighted that Bermuda did not have electronic medical and vaccination records, unlike the Caymans.

Government House confirmed tonight that 19,500 doses of the Pfizer vaccine were on scheduled to arrive on the British Airways flight tomorrow.

Mr Burt said that if the flight could not land because of the expected high winds, Bermuda would not run out of the vaccine.

He added that arrangements would be made to get the shipment to Bermuda as fast as possible, without waiting for next week’s BA flight.

Renée Ming, the national security minister, will convene the Emergency Measures Organisation tomorrow morning as a powerful storm is forecast.

The ministry will also provide a shelter for the homeless over the bad weather.

The Government has also added an interactive “dashboard” to its Covid-19 website which gives daily figures.