By September 20, only 212,549 of the 799,840 eligible Year 13 pupils had received the vaccine, an uptake rate of just 26.6 per cent. Officials said coverage was rising gradually but remained far too low.Regional disparities are adding to the concern. In the West Midlands, the picture is even bleaker: merely 23.2 per cent of eligible teenagers have had their first dose, with just 20,405 out of 87,808 coming forward.Dr Sharif Ismail, a UKHSA consultant epidemiologist, said: “Our recent genomics study highlights how suddenly and unpredictably dangerous new strains of meningitis B can emerge, such as the one seen in the Kent outbreak. This means that similar outbreaks could occur again.”