COVID-19 vaccinations for young children now expected to start later than planned Read more
The letter from the council was not released on Friday, but it said: “In the coming weeks we will work with families in the area directly affected, and with NHS England to identify other communities that may be at risk and help us ensure the right number of children are vaccinated.
“We also want to remind parents that there is now a mandatory vaccine schedule for their child’s age group. Under the schedule, children are required to be fully vaccinated or else they are un-vaccinated and will not be eligible for free school meals. Children who are not vaccinated will not be entitled to receive an NHS vaccine that will boost their immunity against the disease, even if they have been fully vaccinated with the correct dose.
“This is not compulsory vaccination. Parents should talk with their GP and ask for a vaccine exemption if they still wish to be exempt.”
The letter came as a further outbreak of the coronavirus continued to spread. There are now more cases of coronavirus in the UK than in China, the country where the virus first emerged.
The number of confirmed cases across the UK reached 545 on 12 February.
The number of deaths from the virus rose to 45 on Friday, with the total for the first week of February now reaching 19. The UK’s leading infectious disease expert, Professor Nick Nuttall, said as the virus continued to spread, the UK was becoming “increasingly a death machine”.
The most recent fatality was in a woman who had been infected in France. The woman, whom the NHS had said was not in a critical condition, passed away at a hospital in the northwest London borough of Waltham Forest.
Professor Nuttall told BBC Radio 5 Live: “The UK is now in the midst of a very serious epidemic which is spiralling out of control. The numbers of people infected is continuing to rise, and there are now a number of very, very serious and complicated cases.”
He added: “As far as we are aware this is by far the most serious outbreak of coronavirus in Europe, in any country in the world,
