Everyone aged 18 and over will be invited to book their Covid-19 vaccine in England from Friday, according to reports.
All adults are now being urged to arrange a jab if they have not had one and the NHS will start to send about 1.5 million texts to people aged 18-20 from Friday morning.
Whitehall sources told The Times they hope the move will mark the moment Britain enters the beginning of the end of the pandemic that has claimed more than 128,000 lives.
It comes as an Imperial College London survey found cases of the Delta were increasingly rapidly in younger people.
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It comes as new research suggests the chance of getting Covid-19 after being vaccinated drops sharply 21 days following a first dose.
People who become infected post-vaccination are also less likely to have symptoms than those who test positive for the virus but who have not been jabbed.
The findings have been published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and are based on a sample of adults who had received the vaccine up to May 31.
