Shropshire MPs call for younger people to be offered vaccine

Owen Paterson, Lucy Allan, Daniel Kawczynski, Philip Dunne and Mark Pritchard have written to vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi calling for the programme to be broadened.

North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson praised the work of Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group in ensuring the vaccination was delivered.

"This is really positive news," he said.

Mr Paterson said by the end of Thursday, a total of 148,547 doses had been completed, putting the county well above the Midland average.

He said 93.33 per cent of people aged 80 or over had now received their first dose, and 6.67 per cent had been given their second.

Ninety-one per cent of residents in care homes had received their first vaccination, he added.

"As a result, the clinical commissioning group is running out of patients to contact for a vaccine," said Mr Paterson.

"We must not see the programme slow down, so all Shropshire MPs have written to Nadhim Zahawi asking him to allow it to be widened beyond existing cohorts.

"We should extend it to younger people, we need to extend it to the over-50s now.

"We have got this window between now and mid-March when we start doing the second vaccination, and we should make the most of that opportunity to get as many people vaccinated as soon as possible.

"It is really good news."

Mr Paterson said the vaccination rate for the 75-79 age group was 100 per cent, and nearly 97 per cent of those in the 70-74 age group had received their first dose.

In the 65-69 age group, 79.58 per cent had received their first jab, while 26.3 per cent of those aged 60-64 had been given the injection.

The news comes as national figures showed the number of vaccinations had slowed in the county.

The seven days up to February 14, had seen 22,806 people receiving their first does of the vaccine, compared to 42,792 the week before.