COVID-19: In hard-hit Blackburn there is a huge gray area over who is eligible for a vaccine and the criteria are broad | UK News

The race is on between vaccine and virus – and as the Indian variant of COVID-19 spreads in places like Blackburn and Bolton, jab after jab is delivered to those who need it and want it now.

To a new coronavirus vaccination site, set up in Blackburn on Tuesday morning, it was clear people want to do what they can to ensure that this already hard-hit town does not enter another local lockdown anytime soon.

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This is why local leaders have allowed anyone over the age of 18 – eligible – to be vaccinated against COVID.

But there is a huge gray area on who is actually eligible and the criteria are broad.

Lancashire Director of Immunization Jane Scattergood told Sky News: “In Blackburn we have 16,000 doses that we want to get to people quickly.

“We won’t waste a drop of vaccine and in order not to waste any we can bite those over 18 who are otherwise fit.

The government’s message is not to have a localized approach and we should stick to the national age order, but local health officials understand the seriousness of the spread of the disease. Indian variant could have in Blackburn.

Twenty-year-old David Lowrie was first in line at 8:30 a.m. He says getting the vaccine isn’t just about saving his life, but everyone is around him as well.

He said: “At home mum has type 2 diabetes which means she is at risk and my dad is over 65 so if anything happened to them, if I brought him home from work. , I couldn’t forgive myself for doing this to them.

“I just couldn’t see them die for something we can prevent.”

Not far behind …