Non-residents who were given the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine despite not being eligible will get the second shot, the Government said today.

Kim Wilson, the Minister of Health, said: “There were only a few, and two persons are long term visitors.

“The Ministry of Health has agreed that for ethical reasons and to protect public health, we will allow only those few non-residents who have received the first dose to receive the second dose as this will complete the course of medications.”

But Ms Wilson warned: “I will remind the public that only residents can be vaccinated and, for everyone getting the vaccine, the required identification is carefully scrutinised.”

She was speaking as the Ministry of Health announced there were no new confirmed Covid-19 cases among 395 results that came back to health officials.

A ministry spokeswoman said there were seven active cases – four patients under public health monitoring and three in hospital, although none are in intensive care.

Bermuda has recorded a total of 694 cases of the coronavirus since the pandemic hit last March.

A total of 401 were on-island transmissions with a known source and 91 were on-island transmissions with an unknown source.

The number of cases that came in from overseas is 201.

The remaining case is still under investigation.

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

Ms Wilson said that the results were encouraging and it was good to see the number of cases fall.

She added: “People are following the guidelines – the restrictions that are in place are helping to keep the virus from spreading, and for that, I am grateful.”

But Ms Wilson said: “I would like to see more people get tested so that we can all be sure of our status.”

She appealed to anyone eligible for the vaccine to register as soon as possible.