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Brits urged to get Covid jab after new variant ‘Delta plus’ found in UK – as 60% double jabbed

BRITS have been urged to get their vaccines to protect themselves against new variants.

It comes as “Delta plus”, a mutated version of the Delta variant, was confirmed to be in the UK.

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LNP

More than three in five adults have now been double jabbed[/caption]

A huge percentage of the country are now fully protected against Covid, with over three in five adults double-jabbed.

It comes amid a massive rollout targeting all UK adults, as Britain aims to lift lockdown next month.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “The vaccination team have been working incredibly hard to provide people with much-needed protection from this life-threatening disease.

“With more and more evidence emerging on just how effective two doses of our vaccines are in protecting against the Delta variant, it’s a great to see three in five adults have been double jabbed, so we’re well on our way to the whole country getting the fullest possible protection.

“We’re so close now to ensuring the entire adult population is protected – now everyone aged 18 and above can make an appointment, so make sure you book in for your first and second doses as soon as possible.”

A new “Delta Plus” Covid variant “more transmissible” than the original has been detected in the UK.

Around 41 cases of the mutation, previously dubbed the “Nepal variant”, are being closely monitored.

It is believed to spread more easily, bind more easily to lung cells and is more resistance to antibody therapy – but experts have said it’s not a huge worry as it’s been in the country since April and remained under control.

GET JABBED

With 75,188,795 million doses administered in total, 43,448,680 million people across the UK have now been vaccinated with a first dose (82.5 per cent).

And 31,740,115 million people have had both doses (60.3 per cent).

The government met its target of offering a vaccine to the most vulnerable by 15 April and is on track to offer a first dose to all adults by 19 July, two weeks earlier than planned.

NHS England has extended the offer of a vaccine to everyone aged 18 and over.

By 19 July, all those aged 40 and over and the clinically extremely vulnerable, who received their first dose by mid-May, will have been offered their second dose.

Vaccines Minister, Nadhim Zahawi said: “Two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine are absolutely vital in ensuring the fullest possible protection the jabs have to offer – it’s extraordinary that three in five people have now been vaccinated with both jabs.

 

“No matter where you live, where you come from, your background or your beliefs – provided you are over 18, there is a vaccine available to you. I urge everyone eligible to get their jab and help us get back to normality.”

Vaccinated people are far less likely to get Covid-19 with symptoms.

They are also even more unlikely to get serious Covid-19, to be admitted to hospital, or to die from it and there is growing evidence they are less likely to pass the virus to others.

Data from PHE’s real-world study shows the vaccines are already having a significant impact in the UK, reducing hospitalisations and deaths, saving over 14,000 lives and preventing over 42,000 hospitalisations in England.


The Delta variant that spread across England and delayed the country’s Freedom Day was first found in India in December 2020, before Public Health England detected it in the UK in early May.

The strain is up to 80 percent more contagious than the Alpha (Kent) variant.

The North West remains the biggest hotspot for the virus with the 16 most infected areas of the country being focused in the region.