Children fuel UK Covid rise

LONDON, Oct 19 (Reuters):The spread of COVID-19 among children in England is fuelling a recent rise in cases nationally and causing concern among some scientists that vaccines are being rolled out in schools too slowly, risking the welfare of children and adults alike.

COVID-19 cases in Britain as a whole are much higher than in other European countries and are rising. On Friday one survey suggested prevalence was at its highest level since January, with 8 percent of secondary school children infected.

Vaccination rates for the age group in England are lagging those in many European countries and even Scotland, which some scientists have attributed to mixed messaging around shots for children, a later start and inflexibility with the rollout.

"The worry at the moment is it is clear that the vaccination programme in 12 to 15-year-olds is not going very well," Lawrence Young, virologist at University of Warwick, told Reuters, adding that the spread of other viruses could lead to a "perfect storm" in the winter for the National Health Service if cases spread to older, more vulnerable adults.

"With all of what that means not only again for schools, but also for overwhelming the NHS... then the worry is that autumn and winter are going to get very, very messy."

Last month, Britain's chief medical officers recommended that children aged 12 to 15 should be offered a COVID-19 vaccine to help reduce disruption to their education.

But with children and teachers missing school time having caught COVID, some believe the rollout started too late.

"The final approval to go ahead with this was about protecting education and we're not doing that," Young said.

The health service set a target of offering all children vaccination shots by the school half-term break, which starts next week.

Data released on Thursday showed that 28.8 percent of children aged 12-17 had received a COVID-19 shot.

But while the rollout to 16 and 17-year-olds began in August, before schools went back, term had restarted for three weeks in England by the time the rollout to 12 to 15-year-olds had begun.

The recommendation to vaccinate those children was delayed after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) declined to recommend broad vaccination of over-12s, saying the benefit to health was marginal and referring the decision to the chief medical officers.