25-29 Year Olds Will Be Able To Book A Vaccine Appointment From Tomorrow
2 min read
The vaccine rollout will be opened up to people aged 25-29 from tomorrow morning, Matt Hancock has announced.
The Health Secretary confirmed that the vaccination of people under 30 would get underway on Tuesday, with millions of young people set to receive text messages from their GPs.
"I'm sure that we've all been cheered by the images we have seen of so many eligable young people coming forward and lining up to get the jab, showing that the enthusiasm for the jab is not just the preserve of the older generations," Hancock told MPs.
"People in this country know what it takes to keep themselves and the people around them safe".
Speaking in the House of Commons, Hancock said the vaccine rollout had prevented over 39,000 hospitalisations and more than 13,000 deaths, according to the most recent data.
He warned that the Delta variant of the coronavirus first identified in India now makes up "the vast majority of new infections" and is estimated to have a transmissability advantage of at least 40% over the previously dominant Alpha variant, also known as the Kent variant.
The continued spread of the Delta variant across the country has made the race between the vaccine rollout and virus "tighter," Hancock told MPs.
However, the number of new cases in variant hotspot Bolton where measures like surge testing have been deployed have been falling over the past fortnight, the Health Secretary said.
He also revealed new figures which he said showed vaccines were "breaking links between infections, hospitalisations and deaths".
Of the 126 people who were hospitalised with the Delta variant up until June 3, just three had received both doses of the vaccine, the Health Secretary.
83 were unvaccinated, while 28 had received just one jab.
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