Highlights
- Cases have risen to 27 representing a 35 per cent jump in a single day with two students already dead.
- Anyone who visited Club Chemistry since 5 March is now eligible for the MenB vaccine and antibiotics.
- Most young people are unprotected against MenB as the NHS only routinely offers the jab to children under one.
Visiting the University of Kent's sports centre where vaccines and antibiotics were being handed out Streeting told The Telegraph "We are now encouraging anyone who attended Club Chemistry from the 5th of March until it voluntarily closed to come forward for both antibiotics and vaccination."
The rollout had initially targeted 5,000 students living on the university's Canterbury campus. Cases now include a student at a London animation college and students at four schools in Kent.
Cases still rising
Prof Robin May chief scientific officer at the UK Health Security Agency warned the number of cases would probably rise further.
"In outbreaks like this you would typically expect a small increase in numbers still to go," he told BBC Breakfast.
Experts are also looking into whether the bacteria had become more easily transmissible.
Three University of Kent cheerleaders were among those hospitalised and French authorities confirmed a person linked to the Kent outbreak was also in a stable condition in hospital there.
The outbreak has exposed a major gap in the UK's vaccination programme. The NHS began offering the MenB vaccine in 2015 but only to children under one year old leaving most young people unprotected unless they paid privately.
More than 40 MPs signed a letter to Streeting urging the government to work with universities on a catch-up vaccination programme saying affected families were shocked to learn a separate vaccine existed but was never routinely offered.
The UKHSA stressed there was plenty of NHS stock of MenB vaccines after pharmacies reported struggling to obtain private supplies.
