All adults in England invited to book Covid-19 jab from Friday as cases rise by 11,000

17 June 2021, 16:47 | Updated: 17 June 2021, 16:49

All over-18s will be eligible to book their Covid-19 jabs from Friday, as new infections rose by 11,000 cases in one day.

The Health Secretary Matt Hancock made the announcement at the NHS Confed Conference.

He said: "As of this afternoon we have given a first dose of vaccine to four out of every five adults in the United Kingdom.

"And the speed of deployment means that tomorrow we can open vaccination to everyone over the age of 18.

"I think it's an incredible achievement on the vaccination side."

This came ahead of a daily rise of 11,007 lab-confirmed cases across the UK, which is the highest single-day rise since 19 February.

It is also the first time cases have risen above 10,000 in one day since 22 February.

A report from Public Health England (PHE) showed that cases continued to rise in all regions in England.

The highest rate was in 20 to 29-year-olds, who are mostly unvaccinated, where there were 195.9 cases per 100,000 people last week.

This was closely followed by 10 to 19-year-olds, in which cases went up from 100.3 to 143.3 per 100,000 in the same period.

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Vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi tweeted about the "fantastic news" of the rollout, saying: "I urge everybody to take up the offer as soon as possible to protect yourself and your loved ones.

"We can beat this pandemic one jab at a time."

In Wales and Northern Ireland, all adults are already able to get the vaccine.

As for Scotland, their vaccine programme is currently open to over-30s, but 18 to 29-year-olds will be next to receive the jab.

All 18 to 39-year-olds have been invited to receive the jab in Glasgow, due to an outbreak.