Older teenagers seriously ill with Covid-19 ‘led to vaccine rollout extension’

The number of 16 and 17-year-olds becoming “seriously ill” with coronavirus informed the extension of the vaccination rollout to that age group, a member of the committee advising on jabs said. Professor Adam Finn, who sits on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and is a professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol, said there had been “a couple” of 17-year-olds in that area who needed intensive care in hospital in recent weeks. He said while most young people will only have the virus in a mild form, the vaccines will be effective at preventing serious cases.