The Indian variant of coronavirus is the dominant strain in Bolton and Blackburn, with ministers frustrated that people who turned down the jab are now being hospitalised with Covid-19.
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said that hospitalisations among the unvaccinated in the two towns show the importance of getting the jab as analysis by The Times shows that those Bolton neighbourhoods with the lowest vaccination rates have the highest rates of coronavirus.
Twenty-somethings in the town were still reporting being offered jabs yesterday. Vaccination rates quadrupled in Bolton over the weekend, with 6,200 doses administered. Clusters of the faster-spreading variant have been found in 86 areas around the country and known cases are up 76 per cent since Thursday, Hancock said.
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