Over-21s are now invited to book their Covid vaccine

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England’s Covid vaccination drive opened to everyone over the age of 21 today, as ministers race to get every adult jabbed by the country’s new ‘freedom day’ on July 19.

Around one million people aged 21 and 22 will begin to be invited to come forward for their vaccine from this morning, leaving only 18 to 20-year-olds waiting for the call. NHS bosses expect to open up the scheme to all adults by the end of this week. 

But a shortage of vaccines could threaten a further delay to the final unlocking, with supplies of both Pfizer and Moderna jabs said to be ‘tight’.

There has been an increased demand for the two vaccines because young people are being given alternatives to the AstraZeneca jab due to its small risk of blood clots.

The Government brought forward its target for vaccinating all adults from July 31 to July 19 to deal with the rapidly growing Indian variant and to hit the jab target in time for the country unlocking.   

But, despite needing to go faster, the jab rollout has slowed to under half its peak speed. Just 368,555 doses were deployed across the UK on Monday, well under half the 844,285 it managed on a single day in March.

Ministers have conceded that the supply of the Pfizer jab is particularly ‘tight’ while the Moderna vaccine – which has only just become available – is thought to be similarly limited. 

Government advisers recommended an alternative to the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab for under-40s after it was linked to fatal blood clots, mostly in younger people. The Pfizer and Moderna jabs are being shipped in weekly batches from factories in Europe, unlike AstraZeneca’s which is produced domestically. 

It emerged last night that Covid jabs are to become compulsory for staff in care homes for older people in England, with ministers keen to get maximum vaccine coverage with the mutant Indian strain growing rapidly. 

Under plans set to be announced by the Government in the coming days, care staff are to be given 16 weeks to get the vaccine – or face being redeployed or sacked. 

Vaccinating children, however, still remains a contentious issue, with No10 still split over whether to go ahead with the move, given the fact youngsters are at such low direct risk of Covid. 

In total, more than 30million Britons have been fully vaccinated against Covid – over half the adult population – and nearly 42million have been given at least one dose. 

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab played down talks of supply constraints over the weekend, claiming that the rollout had only slowed because it had moved into low-risk groups.

NHS England boss Sir Simon Stevens has said that the health service would ‘finish the job’ of the vaccination programme to the ‘greatest extent possible’ over the next four weeks, and he expects all remaining adults to be offered their first vaccine by the end of the week.

But he told the NHS Confederation’s annual conference that ‘supply continues to be constrained’. 

Downing Street’s vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi last week admitted stocks of Pfizer — the main jab being administered to young people — would be ‘tight’ this month. 

It came as it emerged care home staff will be forced to have Covid vaccinations under plans to be announced by ministers this week.

The controversial measure means 1.5million people working in social care will be told to have the jab within 16 weeks – or face losing their jobs.

It has been introduced following a consultation which concluded it would help protect the most vulnerable in society.

No decision has yet been made on whether vaccination should be made mandatory for the 1.4million who work for the NHS. A separate consultation on that is to be launched.

Ministers are concerned about low take-up of the coronavirus vaccine among care workers, who include care home staff plus home helps.

Despite care workers being among one of the top priority groups for Covid jabs, latest figures show that just two thirds of them have had both doses of the vaccine.

Tens of thousands of care home residents died in the pandemic, largely as a result of infections being brought in by staff during the first wave. 

Organisations representing care firms and their staff have warned that the move could backfire and see workers quit rather than agree to have the jab.

The social care sector already faces a workforce shortage as a result of years of underfunding, and an exodus of staff would make it harder to meet the expected upsurge in demand once the pandemic subsides.

The move also raises questions about how care homes treat staff who refuse a mandatory jab, and whether they have to be moved into other roles, and over whether the Government could face a legal challenge.

Later this week ministers will confirm that they are pushing ahead with compulsory vaccination for most of the 1.5million working in social care in England.

On Tuesday night it was claimed that, under the plans, those working with adults will have 16 weeks to get vaccinated or face losing their jobs.

The Government is also keen to make it mandatory for the 1.38million who are directly employed by the NHS in England to get vaccinated against Covid-19 and winter flu.

The Department of Health and Social Care will in the coming days launch two separate consultation exercises into making Covid and flu jabs mandatory for NHS staff.

But Health Secretary Matt Hancock believes the arguments in favour of protecting patients from potentially infectious staff now outweigh those that allow health workers the right to choose whether to have either immunisation.

Latest figures show that, as of June 6, 89 per cent of NHS staff had had their first dose of Covid vaccine and 82 per cent had had both.

Some 83.7 per cent of staff in adult care homes had received at least one dose by June 6 and 68.7 per cent had been double-jabbed.

The British Medical Association, which represents doctors, warned that while it wants all NHS staff to get jabbed, ‘compulsion is a blunt instrument that carries its own risks’.

The health department said: ‘Vaccines are our way out of this pandemic and have already saved thousands of lives – with millions of health and care staff vaccinated.

‘Our priority is to make sure people in care homes are protected. We will publish our response [to the consultation] in due course.’ 

In an attempt to get Britain to ‘herd immunity’ – when so many people are immune against Covid that the disease peters out – ministers have been mulling the idea of jabbing children.

Professor Chris Whitty raised the prospect of the plans going ahead on Monday when he brought it up at the Downing Street press conference announcing the four-week delay to Freedom Day. 

However, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are said to have raised ‘serious ethical concerns’ about vaccinating children because of the low risk of youngsters becoming seriously ill through Covid.

The group — the Government’s advisory body on vaccines — are urging ministers to study data from other countries where jabs are already being rolled-out to children.

A statement voicing the JCVI’s concerns is set to be released in the coming, according to the Telegraph.

And cabinet minister Lizz Truss this morning said the group would not be recommending the jab for children.

Meanwhile, one of the Government’s top advisors today warned of the ethical dilemma posed by vaccinating children, adding the risk of death to under-18s is less than one in a million.

SAGE advisor Callum Semple, professor of child health and outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool, said he is against vaccinating the 14million children in the UK.

Pfizer’s vaccine has already been approved for 12- to 15-year-olds by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the US equivalent — the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Moderna’s vaccine is poised for approval in the same age group in the US and both companies as well as Johnson & Johnson have begun trials for under-12s.

The Government is having to tweak its original pledge to keep vaccines optional and not jab children due to the Indian variant – which is at least 80 per cent more infectious than the Kent one and twice as likely to put unvaccinated people in hospital.

But, in a glimmer of good news, Covid cases appear to be flat or falling in the first areas to be hit by the new Indian ‘Delta’ variant, official figures show.

The infection rate in Blackburn with Darwen, which took over from Bolton as the country’s hotspot at the end of May, is now falling after appearing to peak on June 4 when there had been an average 143 cases per day over the previous week.

It remains the worst-affected place in the country but if the trend keeps up the change of fortunes could suggest that, as was seen in Bolton, simple surges in testing and vaccinations and tougher advice on travelling in or out of the area and social distancing could be enough to keep a lid on local outbreaks.

Ministers urged another 3.6million people in Birmingham, Liverpool, Warrington and parts of Cheshire to try to avoid travelling and be more careful about virus control measures in a bid to slow outbreaks there.

Boris Johnson yesterday announced a four-week delay to plans to end social distancing rules on June 21 as planned, saying not enough is known about the Indian variant and how difficult it will be to control.

The other areas that were first to be hard hit by the strain when it emerged in April – Bedford and Burnley – also appear to have arrested the spread of Covid by scaling up local efforts to stamp it out and test and isolate everyone.

Those four areas, Bedford, Blackburn, Bolton and Burnley, were the first to see cases surge, the first to get extra help from the Government to control the virus, and now appear to be the first to see infections levelling off.

But infections are still rising fast in many areas that have been added to the official hotspots where advice has been upgraded, with cases going up in twice as many areas as they are flat or falling.

Department of Health positive test figures show that there has been a plateau in the numbers of people testing positive for coronavirus in those hard-hit areas, offering proof that the Indian variant can be controlled.

In Bolton the infection rate had risen to 453 cases per 100,000 people on May 21, with an average of 186 people testing positive each day, but this has since plummeted to 309 per 100,000 and an average 127 daily cases.

There are hopes that the trend there, where the council offered free regular testing to all adults and stepped up its efforts on contact tracing and vaccinations, will translate to other areas that see outbreaks of the variant.

It may be beginning to happen in Blackburn, which took over as the hotspot at the end of May with the rate of cases per 100,000 people hitting 667 by June 7, but since dropping to 599. Average daily cases appear to have peaked at 143 on June 4 and since fallen to 128.

In Bedford a similar trend is playing out, with an infection rate high of 208 per 100,000 on May 23 now having fallen to 154 per 100,000, and average daily cases peaking at 52 on May 20 and now down to 38 per day in the past week.

Burnley also appears to have seen a levelling off in cases, although the trend is less certain and only recent. The seven-day infection rate was 370 per 100,000 on June 8 and fell to 367 by two days later, with average daily cases having levelled off at around 47 per day since June 5.

There are 34 areas now on the list of places to face tougher guidance, which offers a ‘package of support’ from the Government to include surge testing, enhanced contact tracing and financial support to Covid cases and their contacts who have been asked to self-isolate.

Recent data from these 34 areas show that infections appear flat in 10 places, are falling in two (South Ribble as well as Blackburn) but are rising in 22 places.

Most of them are recent additions to the enhanced support list and ministers will be hoping the extra measures help to turn the tide on infections in those places, too.

Boris Johnson’s delay to the original June 21 ‘Freedom Day’ by four weeks came amid fears a third wave of Covid could overwhelm the NHS.

Top scientists hope the move will give the health service more time to vaccinate as many people as possible, offering the nation as much protection against the Indian variant as possible.

Experts say because the mutant strain is so infectious, it will spill into unvaccinated groups and the small percentage of people for whom the jabs don’t work.   

As well as pledging to offer jabs to all over-18s by July 19, the Prime Minister’s new vaccination target is also to fully vaccinate two-thirds of adults. The figure currently stands at around 56.9 per cent, or 30million. 

He also pledged to shorten the gap between two doses to just eight weeks for over-40s, bringing them in line with over-50s.

The aim of dishing out jabs to all younger adults is entirely dependent on the supply of the Pfizer and Moderna jabs. AstraZeneca’s vaccine is not recommended for under-40s because of its rare links to blood clots.

Sir Simon said: ‘It is now very important that we use the next four weeks to finish the job to the greatest extent possible for the Covid vaccination programme, which has been a historic signature achievement in terms of the effectiveness of delivering by the NHS — over 60 million doses now administered.

‘By July 19 we aim to have offered perhaps two thirds of adults across the country double jabs.

‘And we’re making great strides also in extending the offer to all adults — today people aged 23 and 24 are able to vaccinate through the National Booking Service.

‘I expect that by the end of this week, we’ll be able to open up the National Booking Service to all adults age 18 and above.

‘Of course, vaccine supply continues to be constrained, so we’re pacing ourselves at precisely the rate of which we’re getting that extra vaccine supply between now and July 19.’

Sir Simon added that just one per cent of hospital beds in England are currently being used by Covid patients.

He said: ‘At the moment about one per cent of hospital beds in England are occupied by patients with a Covid diagnosis and the age distribution has really flipped as a result of vaccination.

‘Back in January, it was 60/40 — 60 per cent of beds occupied by people over 65, 40 per cent under 65.

‘Now it’s flipped to 30/70, so it’s about 30 per cent occupied by people aged 65 and over 70 per cent by younger people whose prospects are much greater.’

Meanwhile the NHS has been given orders to ‘gear up’ for new Covid-19 treatments, which the NHS expects to come online in the next few months which will also help to prevent severe illness and death.

These new treatments are expected to be given to people in the community, without the need for hospital treatment, within three days of infection.

Sir Simon said: ‘We expect that we will begin to see further therapies that will actually treat coronavirus and prevent severe illness and death.

‘Today I’m asking the health service to gear up for what are likely to be a new category of such treatments, so-called neutralising monoclonal antibodies, which are potentially going to become available to us within the next several months.

‘But in order to be able to administer them, we’re going to need community services that are able to deliver through regional networks this type of infusion in patients before they are hospitalised, typically within a three-day window from the date of infection.

‘So the logistics and the organisation and applying the full excellence of the sort of networked NHS services locally through integrated care systems, we’re going to need to harness all of that, to be able to benefit from the new monoclonal antibodies.

‘We are setting out a set of asks as to how to bring that about in each integrated care system so that as and when the treatments become available to us, they can immediately begin to be deployed.’

Mr Johnson delayed the final stage of unlocking by a month after dire predictions by No10’s top scientific advisers warned the Indian strain could kill up to 500 people in a day had Freedom Day went ahead as planned. 

Unveiling the bad news, the PM defied fury from Tory MPs and the hospitality industry to insist he could not press ahead until more people are double-jabbed. 

He said he was ‘pretty confident’ that restrictions will be able to be lifted by then, adding that the disease cannot be ‘eliminated’ and the country will have to learn to ‘live with it’ in the future. 

Chief medic Chris Whitty, flanking the PM as usual alongside Sir Patrick Vallance, told a Downing Street briefing hospitalisations had risen 61 per cent in the North West in just a week, a trend that was predicted to follow suit nationally if June 21 went ahead. ‘The assessment of risk has fundamentally shifted,’ he said.

The move means that current rules will essentially remain in place until July 19 — with social distancing in force in bars and restaurants, and the edict to work from home where possible staying.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation currently has no plans to revise its guidance on the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab. 

But sources said members may reconsider advice if the balance of benefits and risks changes, potentially as a result of a rapid surge in infections.

A total of 79.4 per cent of adults have now received at least one dose of Covid vaccine and 57.4 per cent – more than 30million people – have been given both doses.

Yesterday NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said all over-18s in England would be able to book a jab by the end of the week.

However, he admitted: ‘Vaccine supply continues to be constrained so we’re pacing ourselves.’

It is thought many people may have to wait a fortnight to receive their vaccine.

Mr Johnson has set a target of offering all adults a first vaccine dose and two-thirds a second dose by July 19. 

Professor Karol Sikora, a former World Health Organisation director, said: ‘The Government needs to work hard to get the speed of the vaccination programme back to its peak level.

‘It should be putting pressure on Pfizer and Moderna to increase supplies so we can quickly vaccinate ourselves out of lockdown.’

Dr Simon Clarke, of Reading University, said: ‘It is more likely lockdown will end on July 19 if the UK can increase the number of people it is vaccinating each day. 

‘The Government needs to do all it can to maximise uptake as quickly as possible. There are plenty of people who want them.’

Meanwhile, London Mayor Sadiq Khan has lobbied vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi for an extra 367,000 doses of Pfizer and Moderna jabs.