UK’s National Health Service chief urges young Brits to get vaccinated

By Karim El-Bar

LONDON (AA) - Amanda Pritchard, the new chief executive of the National Health Service (NHS), urged young people Thursday to get vaccinated

She revealed that more than 20% of those admitted to hospitals with the coronavirus are between 18 and 34 years old.

The same group comprised just 5.4% in January, at the peak of the winter wave.

Pritchard, who took office on Aug. 1, told the BBC that youngsters “are not immune and the best way they can protect themselves absolutely is to get that vaccine if they haven’t already.”

She said the NHS is making it “as easy as possible” for young people to get vaccinated with pop-up clinics and walk-in sites that are set up in addition to 1,600 permanent vaccination sites already available.

“Thanks to the hard work of NHS staff and volunteers, almost nine in 10 adults have had their first COVID-19 vaccination, and more than 32 million have now had both jabs as part of the biggest and most successful vaccination drive in health service history,” she said.

British government data released Thursday showed that there were 30,215 cases in the UK in the past 24 hours. That brings the number of infections since the start of the pandemic to more than 5.9 million. There were also 86 deaths, bringing that total to 130,086.

Until Aug. 4, more than 46.9 million Brits, or 88.7%, have received their first dose of the vaccine, and over 38.8 million, or 73.5%, their second dose.