Jab drive offers young a cheap pizza – and Pf izer booster for all over-50s

YOUNG adults will be lured into vaccination centres with the promise of cut- price taxis and takeaways, as Boris Johnson tries to tackle the relatively low take-up among the under-30s.

Uber, Deliveroo and Pizza Pilgrims are among the companies in discussion with the Government about offering incentives as part of the ‘Jab 18-30’ drive.

So far, only two-thirds of people in that age bracket in England have received a first dose since they became eligible in June, compared with 88.4 per cent across all age groups, meaning more than three million 18-to-30-year-olds remain unjabbed. As part of the plan, Uber will be sending out reminders to its users throughout this month and, along with rival ride-hailing app Bolt, will be offering discounts for under-30s in both cars and food takeaway services. Other companies will be offering vouchers or discount codes for food and films if users can prove through the NHS app that they have had the jab.

The Government’s jab push will also include a booster shot for all the priority group of the over-50s and clinically vulnerable. Unlike the first two jabs, everyone will receive Pfizer – because it is the most effective against the Indian, or Delta, variant. In other developments:

The week-on-week rate of Covid cases fell yesterday for the tenth day in a row. The 26,144 infections represent a fall of 17.8 per cent on last Saturday’s figure of 31,795. The number of deaths fell 17.4 per cent over the same period to 71.

MPs called for British holidaymakers to be given a ‘guarantee’ that the traffic light rules that apply when they touch down abroad will be the same for their return, as Cabinet rows continued to rage over whether Spain and Greece should be put on a new danger list that could force people to pay for hotel quarantine upon returning.

• Ministers t old The Mail on Sunday that a secretive Cabinet Office cell called the Covid Task Force was insisting that quarantine rules should not be relaxed before August 16, despite growing anger over the ‘pingdemic’.

• GPs are hailing a ‘life-saving’ miracle drug that is being used to treat Covid: the steroid Dexamethasone, until now used mainly in hospitals, is increasingly being prescribed to at-home Covid patients to prevent them from needing hospital treatment. MPs last night called on more at-home use of the drug to further cut serious cases.

• Australia deployed helicopters and the army to enforce its ‘Zero Covid’ lockdown, as police flooded Sydney to issue fines to people not wearing masks. The Indian variant is spreading, and just 17 per cent of adults have been vaccinated.

• Over the coming weeks, the Government will roll out ‘grab a jab’ pop-up vaccine sites across the country – over 600,000 people were vaccinated last weekend at walk-in clinics from London’s Tate Modern gallery to a Primark in Bristol. Further sites in the pipeline include Thorpe Park in Surrey and Circus Extreme in Yorkshire.

• The l atest data from Public Health England and Cambridge University suggests that about 60,000 deaths, 22 million infections and 52,600 hospitalisations have been prevented by vaccines.

Last night Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: ‘Thank you to all the businesses who are stepping up to support this vaccine drive. Once available, please go out and take advantage of the discounts.’

A Deliveroo spokesman said: ‘We want to do our part. This is the next step in helping get people vaccinated and safely back to normal.’