The NHS has seen a dramatic surge in demand for vaccines as half a million life-saving jabs were booked in a rush likened to the annual scramble for Glastonbury tickets.

By 12pm on 8 June, just five hours after eligibility widened to those aged between 25 and 29, the National Booking Service had seen 2.5 times the number of total appointments made the previous day, with 493,000 slots reserved, around 100,000 an hour on average and more than 1,600 per minute.

Text messages began to be sent out to people in the newly-eligible age bracket this morning, with more receiving the invite throughout the day and this week.

Sir Simon Stevens, NHS England chief executive, said: “This encouraging Glastonbury-style rush for appointments has already now seen hundreds of thousands of people between 25 and 29 book in for their NHS Covid jabs, as more vaccine supplies continue to come on line. Pleasingly this suggests strong enthusiasm for vaccination amongst people in their twenties, following hard on the heels of the millions of others who’ve already taken up our offer.”

NHS England’s primary care medical director Dr Nikki Kanani added: “It’s great that young people are so keen to get vaccinated as this remains our best defence against Covid, and so we would urge anyone receiving an invitation today, or this week, to book in and get protected.”

So far the NHS in England has delivered more than 57.8 million vaccine doses to over 75 per cent of adults.