Jabs in secondary schools to be speeded up after half-term as Northampton, Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough lag behind most of UK

Delivery of Covid jabs for secondary school students in Northamptonshire will be speeded up after half-term after figures showed the county is lagging behind the rest of the UK.

Only around one in five students aged between 12 and 15 had received jabs by Sunday (October 17).

In Northampton and Corby, that figures drops to around one in ten.

NHS England announced the rollout last month with a target to offer vaccinations to all children in the age group in the majority of schools before October half-term.

First jabs in Northamptonshire schools were delivered on September 27 and local officials say teams have visited all sites as planned with.

But uptake had been hit hard by the number of young people absent from school due to Covid infections or having to self-isolate, and because anybody who tested positive within the previous 28 days is ruled out of having a jab

Weekly case rates in Kettering recently hit nearly 1,800 per 100,000 among 14-to-19-year-olds.

Chris Pallot, director of the county's vaccination programme, said: “There will be an acceleration in delivery after half-term with more team members having experience of cOVID vaccine delivery in a school setting enabling us to visit multiple sites on the same day.

"All parents and guardians should have been contacted by their school to let them know when their vaccination visit is planned.

“We know that vaccinated people are much less likely to contract the disease and pass it on to others. So I strongly urge all parents and guardians to consent for their children to receive the vaccine.

"The more people we can vaccinate across the county, the better protection we will have for our communities and loved ones.

“Everyone deserves the protection of the vaccine and for those children unable to get vaccinated at school, their parents will be contacted with alternative options to get jabbed."

More clinics will be opened up to 12-to-15-year-olds who have missed out on jabs in schools.

Original plans for a 'safety net' involved cross-county trips for some to the Moulton Park Vaccination Centre.

Appointments at the centre can now be booked via the NHS website or by calling 119. But Mr Pallot confirmed further locations where 12-to-15-year-olds can book jabs are expected to be confirmed this week.

Only South Northamptonshire in the top half of a list of 349 English and Scottish areas delivering most jabs, with 23.6 percent done out of a target population of 3,766.

South Ribble in Lancashire is the top performing area with more than 45 per cent of its 12-to-15-year-olds vaccinated by Sunday.

Figures for Corby shows just 352 out of a target population of 3,766 were jabbed — 9.3 percent while in Northampton 1,200 out of 11.500 have been vaccinated, 10.5 percent. .

Daventry, Wellingborough, East Northamptonshire and Kettering all stand at between 14.9 per cent and 17.4 percent

The national average is 20.1 per cent.