Covid jab appointments for under-30s open this week

LONDON: People under 30 will be invited to book their coronavirus vaccine appointment from this week.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the next move down the age range will bring the country “a step closer” to seeing all adults offered a jab.

The government has set a target for every adult in the UK to be offered a first dose by the end of July.

Hancock told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips On Sunday programme that vaccines had “severed but not broken” the link between a rise in cases and an increase in the number of people being admitted to hospital.

He said: “The majority of people going into hospital right now are unvaccinated. This week we will be opening up vaccines to the under-30s and so we are getting a step closer to the point when we have been able to offer the vaccine to all adults in this country.

“Then, once we have got everybody having had their second dose, then you will get this protection that we are seeing at the moment among older people, you’ll get that protection throughout the whole adult population.”

The news comes as people who have been contacted to bring forward their second coronavirus vaccine appointment are being urged to rebook as soon as possible.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommended in May that the second dose interval should be reduced from 12 weeks to eight for those aged 50 and over, as well as the clinically vulnerable. The move aims to combat the spread of the Covid-19 variant first detected in India, also known as the Delta variant.

More than 40 million people across the UK have so far had a first dose of a vaccine. Government data up to June 4 shows that of the 67,284,864 jabs given in the UK so far, 40,124,229 were first doses, while 27,160,635 were second doses.