Walk-in Vaccine Clinics to Open for 12-15 Year-Olds in England in Effort to Boost Slow Roll-Out

Following a fairly unsuccessful start to the roll-out of Covid vaccines to healthy 12-15 year-olds, the Government has announced that walk-in vaccine clinics will open for this age group in the coming weeks. The Guardian has the story.

Older teenagers in England can already attend walk-in clinics to receive their first dose of Covid vaccine, with 56.5% of 16-18 year-olds now vaccinated. The expansion of the scheme to younger teenagers would bring England into line with Scotland, where 12-15 year-olds can also attend walk-in clinics. …

Ministers are planning to expand walk-in vaccination appointments to younger teenagers amid concerns that the Government has been too slow rolling out the vaccine programme in English schools, the Mail on Sunday reported. …

Professor Kevin McConway, an Emeritus Professor of Applied Statistics at the Open University, said the latest [Covid test] results in secondary school-age children were “concerning”. “However you look at it, this is a huge increase, and it clearly follows from schools having reopened and, crucially, from vaccination rates of children in that age group still being low,” he said.

The Government had set half-term as a target for what ministers had hoped would be a speedy roll-out in schools, but with less than a week to go, it is looks increasingly unlikely that that target will be met.

Some parents have told the Guardian that their children haven’t been offered a vaccination appointment until November. There are also reports of sessions being cancelled at the last minute and “poorly prepared” vaccination teams overwhelmed by demand having to leave sites after vaccinating just a fraction of pupils with consent.

Worth reading in full.