Twenty-somethings join thousands-long vaccine queue, with 500,000 jabs booked
Over 25s have hopped onto the back of a thousands-long vaccine queue, after health secretary Matt Hancock confirmed yesterday that the age group was able to get jabbed.
The NHS said half a million COVID jabs had been booked by 12pm today, likening the rush for bookings to the annual scramble for Glastonbury tickets.
The website saw 2.5 times the number of total appointments made the day before, with an average of 100,000 bookings an hour and more than 1,600 per minute.
NHS boss Sir Simon Stevens said: “Pleasingly, this suggests strong enthusiasm for vaccination amongst people in their twenties, following hard on the heels of the millions of others who’ve already taken up our offer.”
Hancock said that people aged 25 to 29 will be invited to book their jab as he signalled the start of the final stage of the vaccination programme.
Under-30s are the final cohort on the vaccine priority list.
London, despite being the most densely populated area in the UK, has remained fairly low on the vaccination league tables due to the number of young City dwellers.
Currently having the lowest proportion of its population inoculated, the capital is set to climb the ranks now that younger people are able to get their hands on jabs.
However, the NHS vaccines website buckled under the pressure when thousands rushed to book a vaccine appointment early this morning.
People logging on were diverted to a holding page, which said: “You are in a queue”.
Eager Brits reported the virtual queues to be as long as 11,000 at one point and were advised by the website that: “Lots of people are trying to book an appointment at the moment. We will tell you where you are in the queue and your estimated wait time shortly.”
Around 770,000 of London’s residents aged 25 to 29 are set to receive a text message in the coming days to invite them for a jab, according to NHS London.
Around three million people across the UK are expected to be contacted, with London contributing to 25 per cent of that total figure.
324,281 Londoners under 30 had received their first dose by the end of May.