COMMENT: Get the jab and help yourself and everyone else

The more people who get jabbed, the better our chances of returning to some kind of normality and getting on with our lives again.

Yet it's concerning that the message isn’t hitting home with younger people. While those in older age groups have dutifully had one or two doses, others are not coming forward.

We report today how figures reveal fewer people in Portsmouth percentage-wise have been jabbed than in neighbouring towns.

A total of 111,974 people in Portsmouth have had a first dose, some 59.1 per cent of the city’s population, as of May 26.

This is below the south east average of 68.3 per cent and significantly less than in East Hampshire where the rate was 77.6 per cent and Fareham where it was 76.7 per cent. Havant and Gosport also had higher uptake rates with 75.6 per cent and 74.2 per cent respectively.

It seems there’s still a common belief among the young in Portsmouth that they’re unlikely to get seriously ill from Covid-19 because it only affects people who are older than them. Consequently, they’re not visiting vaccination centres.

But Helen Atkinson public health director for Portsmouth, reveals that Covid-19 cases now being seen in the city are predominantly in younger age groups who have yet to be vaccinated.

She says: ‘I would strongly encourage everyone who is eligible to get the vaccination. It's the best way to protect ourselves and others and will help us return to all of the things that we've missed.’

In England, people aged 30 and over can now book their vaccines. So we urge you to make that appointment and get the jab.

Please, do it for yourself - but also do it for everybody else.