The closure of a vaccination centre in Kent has sparked concerns among residents - but it will reopen tomorrow, it has been confirmed.

The hub at Sittingbourne's Age UK building in Avenue of Remembrance has been shut since Friday.

Comments on social media suggested it had been closed because teachers had used up all the vaccines but Shaun Potter, who is leading the hub, said this was "incorrect information".

Explaining the closure, he said: "The vaccination centre has been closed as we have not received any further vaccinations through last week since Wednesday preventing us from providing further vaccinations to patients.

"This is unrelated to teachers as the vaccinations given last week were for reserve teachers only and used up remaining stock we had spare.

"Today, we have another delivery of Pfizer vaccinations allowing us to open tomorrow and Thursday and deliver 1,072 vaccinations to the people of Sittingbourne - 75+ only.

"Thursday, we have a further delivery of AstraZeneca vaccinations that are going out to housebound patients."

Mr Potter, practice manager of The Chestnuts Surgery, added: "We are short on vaccinations across the South East, and Sittingbourne can only open when we have adequate stocks provided from NHS England.

"I, myself, have been supporting the CCG in trying to obtain daily deliveries so we can remain open but stocks are very difficult to get a hold of and NHS England are in control of who receives what and when.

"We are wanting to vaccinate, but need the stock from NHS England to enable us to deliver vaccinations."

The town's vaccination hub opened on January 16 and on Thursday all care home residents and staff across Sittingbourne had received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

The hub has also given the town's over-80s their first doses - apart from those who had Covid at the time or those who didn't turn up to their appointment.

It is now working on vaccinating the 75-80 age bracket.

However, the hub came under fire last week for offering the vaccine to teachers in the town, ahead of others.

But, Mr Potter explained the hub had a reserve list of key workers at hand so that no vaccines were thrown in the bin at the end of each day.

Meanwhile, the latest figures for Kent and Medway show that 72.2% of people 80+ have had their first dose of the vaccine, and 16.1% have had their second dose.

An NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) spokesman said: "NHS vaccination teams across Kent and Medway have been making good progress, with services ramping up in recent weeks. We are working extremely hard to vaccinate everyone in the top four priority groups by mid-February.

"It is an ambitious target but everyone involved in the vaccination programme is working flat out to achieve it.”

Read more: All the latest news from Sittingbourne