- Saturday, April 20, 2024
By: Sattwik Biswal
SADIQ KHAN has urged health secretary and vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi to offer Covid-19 vaccines to younger population in areas where the Indian variant has been detected.
“I’ve asked ministers to give us the flexibility to give younger people the vaccine in parts of London where we’re concerned about this strain,” the Mayor of London told Sky News on Monday (17).
“We are saying be nimble in those pockets where we know there is an issue let’s use those vaccines sensibly.
“We know which parts of our city are a concern. In those particular boroughs, we should be operating a hyper-local approach and encouraging those who are younger, and would have to wait a few weeks, to have the vaccine now to avoid this strain spreading.”
He added “the virus isn’t rigid and doesn’t follow rigid rules and we have got to be nimble in our response to it”.
In Hackney, surge testing was announced on Friday after cases of both the Indian and South Africa variants were detected. Moreover, the people of Bolton, a hotspot for the new variant were reportedly told over the weekend that “anyone” could get the vaccine.
In response to Khan’s claims to be “nimble”, Adam Finn, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which decides who should get vaccines first, said: “The two issues with that are that we’re not sure how well the vaccines will interrupt transmission and after a first dose, it does take two or three weeks at least before that protection takes effect.
“For those two reasons we do need to think strategically.”
Prime minister Boris Johnson on Friday (14) had said to accelerate the second dose for people aged over 50 and the clinically vulnerable. Also, cautioning that the variant could pose “serious disruption” to plans to ease the lockdown and may delay the planned ending of all legal restrictions on June 21.
With the easing of lockdown restrictions, Khan, who was elected mayor for a second term, put focus on saving jobs.
“It is important that we, of course, have a good time, stay safe but also protect jobs.
“The reality is that one out of five Londoners works in hospitality or culture and so you can safely have a great time and also support British business,” he said.
