Covid vaccine rollout begins on Monday for Northamptonshire secondary school students

Health workers will deliver the first Covid vaccines for Northamptonshire's secondary school students from Monday (September 27).

All those aged between 12 and 15-years-old will be offered jabs to combat recent spikes in cases causing more disruption to children's education.

Parents or guardians are already receiving letters with details of when their youngsters will be offered single doses Pfizer-BioNTech Covid jab.

Chris Pallot, director of Northamptonshire's vaccination programme, said: “We have been working hard over the past few weeks to be ready to deliver the Covid vaccine to all secondary schools across our county.

"We’re delighted that this rollout will begin next week.”

Parents or guardians do not need to contact their GP or the NHS. Those with home-schooled children in our county are being contacted separately to invite children to get jabs at the Moulton Park Vaccination Centre.

All will be asked to give their consent for their child to receive the vaccination either online or via a paper form.

Kettering now has the highest rate of new positive tests in the county — and the second highest in England — with an overall figure of 579 on September 18.

But government data showed the weekly infection rate had reached 2,951 per 100,000 among 10 to 14-year-olds and 1,979 in the 15 to 19-year-olds.

England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty this week warned that any child between the ages of 12 and 15 would get Covid-19 at some point without the vaccine.

He told a committee of MPs "there is definitely substantial transmission happening in this age group.

"Virtually any child, unvaccinated, is likely to get an infection at some point between 12 and 15.

"We are very clear this is not a silver bullet but it will significantly reduce the amount of disruption.

"The great majority of children who have not currently had Covid are going to get it sooner or later because this is incredibly infectious. Vaccination will reduce that risk."

The rollout in schools is being led by Northamptonshire Heathcare NHS Foundation Trust.

NHFT Director of Community Healthcare Rachel West said: "Our school-aged immunisation service has been delivering routine vaccinations in schools for many years and we’re ready and looking forward to getting started with the Covid vaccine from next week.

"Parents and guardians don’t need to contact their school or the NHS to ask about the vaccine. We will be in touch with more information about when their school visit will be taking place.”