PEOPLE aged 40 and over in England are now being invited to book their coronavirus jabs as the Prime Minister faced further calls to launch an inquiry into the handling of the pandemic.

NHS England said text messages will be sent from Friday to 40 and 41-year-olds allowing them to arrange their vaccination appointments.

With people aged 42 to 44 having already been texted this week it means 2.5 million more people have been invited for their jab.

The expansion of the vaccine rollout comes as the latest data showed an estimated 91.5% of people aged 45 and over in England had received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine by April 25, and just over four-in-five aged 70 and over had been given both doses.

Meanwhile, two leading think tanks said that a public inquiry into the country’s response to the pandemic should be launched immediately.

The Institute for Government (IfG) and King’s Fund both disputed claims it was the “wrong time” for an inquiry , saying the first steps could be taken without distracting civil servants from tackling the pandemic.

The IfG said that the inquiry should be established in May, giving it time to determine its terms of reference and complete preparatory work such as appointing a secretary and counsel before beginning its investigations in September after Parliament’s summer recess.

Isle of Wight County Press:

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said there were 209 cases in the UK of the rare combination of blood clots with low platelet counts following being vaccinated the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab, with 41 deaths, up to April 21.

New data giving a breakdown of the jab’s side affects by age, published by the MHRA for the first time on Thursday, showed that 23 cases occurred in people aged 18 to 29, 27 in those in their thirties, 30 in people in their forties, 59 in people in their fifties and 57 in those aged 60 and above, with the age not known in the remaining cases.

The MHRA said that the data suggested there is a higher incidence reported in the younger adult age groups and advised that this evidence should be taken into account when considering the use of the vaccine.

Isle of Wight County Press:

Chief executive Dr June Raine said that no medicine or vaccine was without risk, but said the blood clots were “extremely rare”.

She added: “The benefits of the vaccine continue to outweigh the risks for most people.”

Meanwhile a survey found that around a fifth of unvaccinated adults say they will feel resentful if they do not get a coronavirus jab before their summer holidays.

The Government’s target is to have offered a jab to all UK adults by the end of July.