Latest updates: shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth warns current booster programme will not be completed until March 2022
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Jeremy Hunt made his comments earlier (see 11.12am) during a Commons urgent question on Covid. During the exchanges Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said the government should be aiming to get booster vaccinations up to 500,000 a day. He told MPs:
On current trends we won’t complete boosters until March 2022. Instead of doing just 165,000 booster jabs a day, why not set a commitment to do 500,000 jabs a day and get this programme completed by Christmas, mobilising pop-up clinics and making better use of community pharmacies?
The third dose for immuno-compromised has been described as chaotic by charities. Why not allow them to use walk-in centres?
Historically, around 5% of school is missed due to absence during the spring term, but in spring this year 57.5% of sessions (half a day) were recorded as missed due to circumstances relating to coronavirus.
This represents 219m school days, according to Department for Education (DfE) data out today.
