Speaking on her first visit since taking up the NHS England chief executive role, Amanda Pritchard has urged young people to get the coronavirus jab.

Her encouragement follows new figures which reveal that those aged 18-34 now make up more than one in five of those admitted to hospital with the virus. Patients aged 18-34 made up more than 20 per cent of those admitted to hospital last month, up from 5.4 per cent at the peak of the winter wave in January.

More than 250,000 adults aged under 30 have come forward for their first or second dose in the past week, as well as 1,600 people aged 80 and over who took up the ‘evergreen’ offer.

In all, the NHS has vaccinated around nine in 10 adults with almost three-quarters of adults double-jabbed in the biggest and most successful vaccination drive in NHS history.

Pritchard, said: “Thanks to the hard work of NHS staff and volunteers almost nine in 10 adults have had their first Covid-19 vaccination and more than 32 million have now had both jabs as part of the biggest and most successful vaccination drive in health service history. There is no doubt that the NHS vaccination programme is having a major impact, keeping around 52,000 people out of hospital and saving an estimated 60,000 lives.

“However, we must not forget that there are more than 5,000 people who are seriously ill in hospital with Covid and more than a fifth of those admitted are young people.

“NHS teams are putting on pop-up clinics and walk-in centres in addition to around 1,600 permanent sites, to make it as easy as possible to protect yourself, your family and your friends so do not delay sorting your jab. And as the NHS gears up for a boosters drive this autumn we will be looking to offer other checks wherever possible to make every contact count when it comes to improving people’s health.”

NHS staff are now preparing to deliver booster jabs this autumn to frontline healthcare staff and everyone aged 50 and over, as well as the annual flu vaccine.