Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has called for vaccinations for 18-30 year olds to be included in the government’s “enhanced support package” to tackle the Delta variant.
On Wednesday, the Health Secretary asked residents to Greater Manchester and Lancashire minimize travel and meet people outside if possible to prevent the variant from spreading further there
The government also announced a “Reinforced support package” to help COVID response, which includes military assistance and additional testing facilities.
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But Mr Burnham told Sky News he must also include vaccinations for younger age groups than those currently eligible.
“We’re saying to the government – give us the supplies you would give us anyway – don’t give us more supplies than we need – just give us those supplies now,” he said.
“Let’s make progress by vaccinating these young people in the next two or three weeks.
“It makes more sense to vaccinate 18-30 year olds now in June rather than doing it in July when they already had the Delta variant.”
Since Tuesday, people aged 25 to 29 can now get their coronavirus vaccine, with hundreds of thousands reserving their vaccines on the first possible day.
In Blackburn, Lancashire, local public health teams administered vaccines to young people against government advice.
Mr Burnham said although variant cases are on the decline in Bolton, where they rose for the first time, infections are increasing in the other nine boroughs of Greater Manchester.
He added that he supports the government’s offer of support to deal with the variant – as opposed to the restrictions – but believes they must delay taking action.
“The delay is one of the causes of the situation we find ourselves in. It is undeniable that this has had an impact,” he said.
The ‘enhanced’ assistance package for Greater Manchester and Lancashire includes:
• Rapid response teams
• …
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Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-06-09 07:54:00
