Official figures show that less than half of London’s children have received their first Covid vaccination.
The entire programme for inoculating 12 to 15-year-olds has been sluggish because of a shortage of paediatric nurses, and poor organisation — with medics returning to schools multiple times to jab different year groups.
Labour called on No10 because they have the latest statistics for NHS. Turbocharge the campaign to reach younger age group.
Hackney is the lowest place for 12- to 15-year olds, with only 19.8% having had their first vaccination. The capital is home to all five of the lowest performing areas.
Three times the rates are found in areas that have more wealth. Fareham, Hampshire: 67% children get jabbed. South Oxfordshire has 64.33%, and New Forest (also in Hampshire) 64.11%.
Bridget Phillipson Shadow Education Secretary was promoted to Labour’s frontbench. Today, Phillipson urged ministers open more walk in clinics so that children can receive their jabs. Six in ten children nationwide have yet to receive their first shot.
This is after Britain’s vaccination advisers suggested that the older age groups should receive their second dose 12 weeks following their initial, in order to avoid an Omicron wave.
Initial plans to give top-up injections to young people were stopped by Ministers due to the danger of myocarditis. It is a rare form of heart disease that can be linked to Moderna’s second and third doses of Pfizer. The JCVI lowered the risk-benefit ratio for this age group. They are at a very low risk of becoming seriously ill if caught with Covid.
To ease fears, however. A study that was published today found that rare cases of myocarditis can be mild, and they are often quickly treated.
Below is a map showing the percentage of Covid-vaccinated children between 12 and 15 years of age that were administered one dose by a local authority in England. Two doses of Pfizer Jab are offered to the children within this age group through both the NHS and schools vaccination services.
Figures above show how many children aged 12-15 years old were single-vaccinated in England between September and October. The figures reveal that six-in-10 children still need to be vaccinated.
The NHS will administer jabs to Britain’s almost 3million 12- to 15-year olds mostly via school clinics. Parents are asked to consent to inoculation.
Parents can book online appointments for their children to go to local jabbing centers. They can also walk in clinics. Only certain clinics offer vaccinations for children under the age of 18.
NHS England statistics as of November 30 showed that 43 percent of children aged 12-15 have received their first dose.
There were two areas with the lowest rates of uptake: Hackney, Barking & Dagenham (20.5%), Waltham Forest (20.9%) and Enfield (both 22.5%).
Phillipson accused Government officials of being complacent and said children were paying the price for slowing down the inoculation drive.
She stated that the Government should get control of education and not neglect children.
“Labour is urging ministers not to hesitate to call for walk-in and pop-up clinics, but to bring back retired and volunteer clinicians in order to increase the effectiveness of their programs. [the]The rollout of vaccines.
“This must be done alongside the introduction of ventilation in schools which SAGE has recommended for over a decade.
She suggested that the roll-out pharmacies, walk-in clinics and pop-up clinics be ‘turbocharged’ so they are able to give jabs for children.
According to the Department of Health in England, the vaccine program is a ‘phenomenal failure’. They argued that vaccinations can be given at schools and in local clinics.
The Pfizer Covid vaccine protects 12-15 year-olds from the flu. It was available starting in September.
Official figures indicate that the trend is now leveling off, with 6 in 10 children not yet being jabbed in England.
Comparatively, 60 percent of 12- to 15-year olds in Scotland have had their first dose. When the rollout began, children in the country could book their appointments online.
Children face a tiny risk of serious illness or death if they catch Covid, while the jabs are associated with rare cases of myocarditis or pericarditis — another heart complication — in young people.
In rare instances, the jabs may cause inflammation in the heart muscle. However, this usually resolves on its own and has no lasting effects.
The JCVI stated that children under 16 with serious conditions face a 1:10,000 chance of getting Covid-related illness, whereas healthy children have a 1:500,000 chance.
This means that the balance favors youngsters suffering from underlying diseases like Down’s Syndrome. However, it leaves the decision controversial for children who are healthy.
This is more common in young boys who have received a second Pfizer jab. However, the condition usually resolves on its own.
From the 45.3 million Pfizer doses, there have been 791 confirmed cases in the UK.
After Boris Johnson’s goal of giving all 18-year-olds their third dose of booster vaccines by January 31, ministers now have to increase the drive for this vaccination.
It was also disclosed today that as many as 300,000.00 housebound individuals, who are more at risk to contracting the virus, have still not had their Covid booster jab.
The Daily Telegraph saw unpublished Whitehall numbers that only 170,000 of the housebound had received top-up shots at week’s close.
It is only 36 percent of the estimated 470,000 victims. Some estimates put the number of people living in England’s houses at around a million.
Ministers announced plans to offer GPs £30 per house visit as an incentive to encourage them to offer boosters to some of those most at risk from the virus as concern grows about the slow booster rollout.
Sajid Javid the Health Secretary also said that doctors would no longer need to do routine medical checks. This will allow for them to assist with the booster program.
However, it’s understood that most of the people involved in administering first or second vaccine jabs for children have chosen to avoid home visits to give boosters due to a lack of staff and time.
Local NHS pharmacies or clinical commissioning groups have been responsible for housebound patients in London, Kent and Cambridgeshire.
Caroline Abrahams (Age UK’s charity director) said, “The general clunkiness that has affected the booster rollingout seems to have led to some older persons still waiting for their nurse to give them their booster jab.”
“This would be worrying regardless of what situation it was, but now is even more because there could be a threat from the new variant of the omicron.
Last week the JCVI — Britain’s vaccine watchdog — dramatically expanded the inoculation drive to offer 39 to 18-year-olds a third dose amid mounting concern that the country could face a fourth Omicron wave.
However, estimates show that everyone won’t be given a boost if they continue to inoculate at 378,000 per day.