JUST over half of Blackburn with Darwen residents have taken up the offer of the booster jab.

In the borough, 55.3 per cent, of 61,533 people have had their Covid-19 booster jab.

The highest uptake in East Lancashire was in the Ribble Valley where 39,016 people, or 77.9 per cent of the population, are now triple jabbed.

In Rossendale 65.7 per cent of the borough, 36,684 people, have had their third vaccine while in Burnley, 41,374 people, which equates to 60.4 per cent of people in the area are fully vaccinated and boosted.

In Pendle 58.4 per cent of people have had their booster jab, with 57.4 per cent of people in Hyndburn having taken up the offer for the third vaccination.

This comes as research shows that the risk of death involving Covid-19 is 93 per cent lower for people who have had a booster or third dose of vaccine compared with unvaccinated people.

Mortality rates for coronavirus deaths were found to be “consistently lower” across all age groups for those who had received an extra dose compared with those who had received no doses, according to the Office for National Statistics.