Over 700,000 got their vaccine on first day of jabs for 18-20-year-olds

Anyone over 18 is now being urged to come forward and get their first dose of the vaccine

According to Public Health England (PHE), a total of 721,469 slots were reserved through the national vaccine booking service on Friday 18th June, as 18-20 year-olds can now book their Covid-19 vaccine appointment. This is a fantastic rate with which to start the next phase of the rollout, as it equates to 30,000 an hour or more than eight a second. This latest age group now means that all over-18s can now get their vaccine, just six months on from when the first doses started to be delivered to the general public. To cope with the obvious high demand of the rollout, stadiums and football grounds across London have transformed into giant vaccination centres, administering thousands of doses at a time. Similar scale operations have been carried out at the likes of Manchester City's Etihad Stadium too. West Ham United's London Stadium carried out approximately 15,000 vaccinations yesterday, with "hundreds and hundreds" of people lining up to receive their first dose. This is great news and, hopefully, the rest of the weekend will be just as productive. PHE says there has been a 79% rise in cases of the Delta variant in just one week and the increase in infections has mainly been concentrated in younger age groups. The recent G7 event in Cornwall has actually been declared a 'super-spreader' event, after the visit from world leaders resulted in a 2,450% increase in cases. As such, some experts believe we are now in a third wave and, therefore, the pace at which vaccinations are carried out must continue to be quick.