Secondary school pupils should be offered Covid jabs in hotspot areas for the variant first detected in India, Labour has said.
Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy urged the Government to "listen to people on the front line" amid concern over outbreaks linked to the Delta strain in schools.
The UK's vaccine experts are expected to make a decision within weeks about whether to inoculate secondary-age pupils after the medical regulator approved the use of the Pfizer jab in children over 12-years-old.
Ms Nandy told Sky News: "I think you have to listen to what people are saying on the front line - if public health directors in areas are saying 'look, we've got to open up the vaccine to 18 plus', as they did a few weeks ago, we ought to listen and respond to that.
"If they're saying, 'we've got a problem in our secondary schools, and we need to open up the vaccine, not to make it mandatory, but to open it up, the chance for young people to be vaccinated', then we ought to listen and respond to those public health officials as well."
NHS bosses have said patients in hospital in hotspots like Bolton are younger than in previous waves, as large parts of the older population are now vaccinated.
Ms Nandy said: "I think the regulator was absolutely clear that for 12-year-olds and over the Pfizer vaccine is safe, and it's becoming apparent that the rise in transmission rates is being driven amongst younger people, not just school-aged children but secondary school aged children as well.
"I think that it is right to follow the public health officials, particularly those in areas that are saying 'this is what they want to do'.
"I think the Government ought to be listening to people on the front line."
Health Secretary Matt Hancock fuelled speculation that the Government was set to back the plan, saying that vaccinating children over the age of 12 could have "upsides" for education.
Recent data from Public Health England showed there have been 97 confirmed outbreaks linked to at least one variant case in schools over the most recent four-week period.
This amounts to around one in 250 schools.
Mr Hancock told Sky News: "I'm delighted the regulator, having looked very carefully at the data and with their typical rigour and independence, has come forward and said that the jab is safe and effective for those who are over the age of 12.
"We're only talking about children over the age of 12 here and we're taking advice currently from the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation, the experts in this, on the right approach to putting this into practice.”
He confirmed young people in their 20s would start to be vaccinated within days.
“Next week we'll move to opening up vaccinations to the under-30s who are adults, so we have a few weeks yet until we come out with a plan for exactly how and if we take this forward,” he said.
"We know that the vaccine both protects you and helps you stop transmitting, and I want to protect education as much as anybody does ... and so making sure that we don't have those whole bubbles having to go home, especially as we saw over the autumn for instance, that has upsides for education."
In a separate interview, Mr Hancock told Times Radio that a decision would come "in the next few weeks", ahead of the summer holidays.
He also made it clear that the jab would not be mandatory.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair backed vaccinating children in the UK before sending doses overseas to help inoculate people in poorer nations.
He said: "The priority will always be first to get your own country vaccinated and we're doing that."
