A HEALTH boss hopes everyone aged over 16 will be offered a coronavirus jab by November paving the way for his borough’s large young population to get immunised.

Professor Dominic Harrison, Blackburn with Darwen Council’s director of public health, is worried that its high proportion of younger people could become a reservoir of Covid-19 infection.

Almost a quarter of the borough’s population - 23.1 per cent - is under 16, the eighth-highest figure in the country.

Prof Harrison said: “By November 2021, we should have all cohorts vaccinated, except those under 16. The current government policy is not to vaccinate those under 16 until further research establishes the safety and efficacy of the vaccine in these age groups.

“This means areas with higher numbers of under 16-year-olds will have a greater percentage of the population unvaccinated at the end of the current vaccine rollout. We have no date for when the trials will be completed.

“For Blackburn with Darwen, this does mean we will exit the national vaccination programme with a smaller proportion of our population protected by vaccination.

“The borough has 23.1 per cent of our population under 16. This makes it even more important that we get everyone over-16 vaccinated and vaccination is rolled out faster in our area than the national average to manage this higher risk.

“Some of our areas across the borough that have had higher transmission risks and cases since the beginning of the pandemic also have a higher percentage of under 16-year-olds.”

His Lancashire County Council’s counterpart Dr Sakthi Karunanithi said: “In our county the pace of vaccination has to be faster so we can level up by the time restrictions lift in April. This is not only in the interest of local residents but also nationally as this prevents new mutations arising.”