About 600 people got their first coronavirus jab after too much vaccine was thawed out, health officials revealed tonight.

Kim Wilson, the health minister, said officials were looking at why the extra doses were taken out of deep freeze.

She added: ““We continue to investigate the matter, but it appears more vaccine was thawed out than could be anticipated by the confirmed appointments.”

She was speaking after a short notice call for people to come forward to get a shot to avoid the vaccine having to be thrown away.

The appeal was made on Wednesday for people to go to the two vaccination centres at Bermuda College and the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital after the excess was discovered.

Ms Wilson said: “Prior to opening up the extra doses to the broader population, we did call people on our back up list, and the Ministry of Health and some of our stakeholder agencies phoned persons 65 years or older whose contact details we had.”

But she added: “Most were either already booked for their vaccine or their first dose.”

Ms Wilson said: ““Thanks again to everyone who showed up to get vaccinated and to all the health professionals and administrative staff who worked 12-14 hours that day to get the job done.”

The news came as it was revealed one new case of the coronavirus had been identified out of 425 test results that came back to health officials today.

The case was classed as an on-island transmission associated with an earlier identified infection.

One victim has recovered since the last update and there are 22 active cases, all monitored by public health officials, but none are in hospital.

The island has recorded a total of 722 cases of infection since the pandemic hit last March.

A total of 688 people have recovered and the death toll remains at 12.

The average age of active cases is 43 and the age range is from under 30 to more than 50.

The average age of confirmed case is also 43 and the age run runs from less than one year old to more than 100.

The average age for fatalities is 75, with an age range of under 60 to to more than 80.

A total of 508 cases were on-island transmissions, 416 of them with a known contact and 92 with an unknown contact.

The number of cases that have come in from overseas is 214.

The number of test results reported is more than 170,000, with an average age of 43.

The seven-day average of the real-time reproduction number is approaching one and the country’s status remained at “sporadic cases”.