00:00The Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, has been at the University of Kent Canterbury campus today
00:04as hundreds of worried students received a vaccine to protect them against the meningitis
00:09outbreak that's currently ripping through our county. The visit coincided with the announcement
00:14that the jab is being offered to more people. All staff and students at the University of Kent,
00:19regardless of age, can now get the vaccine. Canterbury Christchurch students and pupils
00:23at a few select secondary schools will have it too. It's unclear if staff at these organisations
00:28will have the opportunity to have the vaccine, like their Uni of Kent counterparts. Anyone who's
00:34been to club chemistry since 5th March can also have it. If you went clubbing there, you're being
00:38urged to come forward. There are still a lot of unanswered questions about the rollout, but KMTV
00:43and Kent Online couldn't ask the minister as local press was shut out from his visit, with only national
00:48media allowed in the building. However, he did have a few seconds on his way out and he said this.
00:54Yeah, I think we've seen a really, really brilliant response here. The way in which the NHS team has
00:59mobilised so quickly, they've done a great job. We're expanding the availability of the vaccine
01:04today too. So we'll expect to see more people coming through. We've got effective treatment
01:09through the antibiotics and effective vaccination campaign. The risk here in Canterbury remains low
01:15and across the country, extremely low. So I hope people can take confidence and reassurance from that.
01:19The widening of the vaccine rollout begs the question, has an entire generation been let
01:25down by the government? While Memby vaccines began being offered to babies from 2015, teenagers
01:31off to university were never offered it, despite young adults being an at-risk group. That's
01:37why 40 MPs, including Canterbury's Rosie Duffield, are urging a catch-up vaccination programme
01:42for students. As a parent here in Canterbury myself, I know that year 13s are often at those
01:48clubs and mixed together, sometimes in the same groups as the uni students. I think it is important
01:52to educate year 13s, year 12s even, coming up to that age, and to vaccinate year 13s if we can
01:58possibly do that and roll it out. It is odd that we have that weird cut-off date. I'm not
02:02sure why,
02:03because it's not as if this has gone away. So I think we need to look at that very seriously.
02:08We need to look at the education of younger people. This is a fact of life. This disease is out
02:14there.
02:14We do need to equip young people to just have a normal life, especially people who have suffered
02:19from the lockdown and the sort of horrible impact that had on your social lives. So yeah,
02:24I'd like that to just be seen as a normal thing that you get vaccinated and therefore you're a lot
02:28safer. The open letter by MPs read that no family should have to discover too late that protection
02:34was available, but not available to many on our NHS. The vaccine costs several hundred to buy on a
02:41pharmacy and is now sold out in several areas in Kent. As for the numbers, 1,500 have been
02:47vaccinated so far and the total of confirmed and suspected cases on day five now is at 27.
02:54But by tomorrow morning, what will that number stand at and will the health secretary have any
02:58clear answers about when this crisis will pass? Well, we hope he'll have the time to tell us
03:03if he ever returns to the county. Chloe Brewster for KMTV in Canterbury.
