Cardiff’s coronavirus vaccination programme will be put on hold until Thursday afternoon after nine staff working at its vaccination centre tested positive for the virus

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board (CVUHB) said other staff were being tested to manage the outbreak and the pause in the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine rollout was to manage capacity at the site.

On Wednesday a spokeswoman for the health board said it had still not identified any additional risk to anyone who has been vaccinated at the centre in the Splott area of the city last week.

Health and social workers were the first to be given the jab when the programme launched on December 8, with the Cardiff site given an initial 975 vaccines.

On Tuesday, CVUHB said on Twitter: “We can confirm that a number of staff have tested positive at one of our mass vaccination centres. We are implementing testing of staff at the centre and anyone that is identified as a close contact will be asked to self-isolate.

“Currently, no additional risk has been identified to anyone who has been vaccinated at the centre. We would like to take this opportunity to remind the public that the virus is still prevalent in our local communities.”

Cardiff Council said the city’s test positivity rate of 18% shows it is “clear the virus is spreading through the community, making it extremely difficult to contain”.