People 18 and over in three wards in Blackburn are being urged to book an appointment for a Pfizer coronavirus vaccine online after the India variant was found in three wards.
The call comes after the B.1.617.2 strain of the virus, often called the Indian variant, was found in Shear Brow and Corporation Park, Billinge and Beardwood and Bastwell and Daisyfield.
Blackburn has the UK's third highest infection rate after recording 90.2 cases per 100,000 - behind Bolton, which has the second highest rate in the UK with 162.4 cases per 100,000.
There are calls for a similar mass vaccination scheme in Bolton, where cases have more than doubled in seven days - with Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham suggesting it should be rolled out across the region.
Officials in Greater Manchester have been pushing the government to let them vaccinate over-16s in specific 'high risk' communities in an effort to curb a spike in infection rates.
So far, the calls have been resisted as there were fears it would throw the vaccination programme off track.
Mr Burnham has submitted a request to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation that all over-16s in Bolton, and the rest of the region, are able to get a jab to 'mitigate the risks of spread in those communities where we are seeing more transmission'.
As of May 7 (the latest figures available in Blackburn) the coronavirus infection rate of 90.2 per 100,000 is up from 52.1, to levels last seen at the end of March.
Blackburn with Darwen borders Bolton to the north, so is likely to have been affected by the jump in cases experienced by its neighbour. Surge testing has not yet been rolled out there.
As things stand, Bolton has the second highest rate in the UK, with 437 new coronavirus cases recorded in the seven days to May 7.
More up-to-date figures for Bolton for the week ending May 8 show there are now 162.4 cases per 100,000 in the borough - a spike of 95 per cent in seven days.
Surge testing has been underway in Bolton for the past six days after Public Health England confirmed the town is one of the main locations for cases of the India variant of Covid, which was reclassified as a variant of concern last week.
Cases of the India variant across England rose from 202 to 520 as of May 7, PHE said, with almost half related to travel or contact with someone who'd travelled.
The remaining cases linked to the India variant are concentrated in London.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the government is considering a mass vaccination programme in Bolton, but it is not 'top of the list' of solutions to rising infection rates in the town.
Bolton North East MP Mark Logan has also urged the government to consider a mass vaccination programme there.
Speaking in a video on his Facebook page this week, he called on Health Secretary Matt Hancock to get the 'whole of Bolton vaccinated as quickly as possible'.
