Millions of people who have not been caught are a major concern as England strives to get vaccinated | Corona Virus

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In the Newtown ward in central Birmingham, the government’s motto “Get your booster now” means nothing to half of the over 16-year-olds, as they have never received a Covid vaccination.

It’s a similar story in Westminster and Camden in London, where among those aged over 12, 30% did not get a single injection. In Nottingham, a quarter of the total population is facing a “tidal wave” coming from the vulnerable Omicron.

The vaccination scramble isn’t just about boosters, it’s about persuading millions to receive any shot at all.

“Omicron will unevenly hit the least protected,” said Jim McManus, president of the Association of Public Health Directors. “We have two jobs: getting vaccines into as many arms as possible and really getting into the communities with the worst uptake.”

Map of unvaccinated people

In Birmingham, one of the least vaccinated groups are Chinese aged 18-29, who, according to City Council Public Health Director Dr Justin Varney, have been hit hard by anti-vaccination messages on Chinese social media. Three out of four are not being vaccinated. vaccinate them.

Across the city, 42% of those under the age of 40 are not vaccinated – more than 200,000 people, including more than 70% of the Caribbean population under the age of 40.

Varney said vaccination clinics are being set up in Bullring and Fort malls, and he said the main problem is reaching young people, who don’t see the virus as life-threatening and won’t take time off work if their employers don’t pay them. .

The board is asking chiefs “to view this as a chemotherapy appointment,” Varney said.

McManus, who is also Hertfordshire’s director of public health, said the booster program needs to be combined with a push to reach the least vaccinated groups, which analysis shows include poorer, younger and more ethnically diverse communities.

In a previous article, experts told the Guardian that London’s numbers could look worse than they were due to the capital’s mobile population, with many people moving home without being de-registered from a GP.

London also has a smaller than average population, and younger age groups have had less time than older people to get vaccinated.

Figures from government deprivation data across England showed that less than 84% of people living in one fifth of the most deprived areas had taken at least one dose, while this rises to more than 92% in the least deprived areas.

McManus said local health teams need to provide transportation, recruit community activists, and even use contact tracing skills to contact unvaccinated people.

Graph

One of the least protected is Camden in North London where 30% of people do not have vaccine protection. Director of Public Health Kirsten Waters said on Wednesday she was “concerned for those populations who have not yet taken their first or second dose and [I] Urging them to come forward.”

The need to push into hard-to-reach communities comes as the UK’s Health Security Agency reports Omicron is now the main breed in London.

52 per cent of a sample of new coronavirus cases in London with sample dates of December 11 and 12 were found to have a target failure of the gene S – a method for detecting the possible presence of the latter variant.

Its penetration across England is now estimated at 24% but the prevalence is uneven, with only 6% of Covid cases likely to be Omicron in the North East.

Professor Azim Majeed, Head of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London, said the relatively low protection of vaccines in London was one of the reasons Omicron had dominated so quickly. The size of the city’s international airports, the number of international visitors, and the often crowded population density were other reasons.

Vaccine coverage chart

“The challenge we face in London is huge, but every dose of a vaccine given to someone is a building block in that firewall,” said Professor Kevin Fenton, regional director of public health at the Office for Health Improvement and Inequality in London. “We need the whole of London to get the full protection of the vaccine as quickly as possible – one dose, two doses and get a boost.”

A spokesman for the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said projects were underway in the capital to work closely with “community stakeholders, schools and religious leaders to deliver outreach campaigns to promote a vaccine for all Londoners, especially those targeted by misinformation about vaccines, and to support the NHS in opening health centers”. Entry for London residents regardless of immigration status and GP registration.”

The capital has the highest proportion of the UK’s immigrant population, who are less likely to register with a GP, and some, who have uncertain immigration status, are reluctant to share personal information required to get an appeal.

“The Mayor continues to urge all Londoners who are eligible for the vaccine to come forward as soon as possible to protect themselves and their loved ones,” the spokesperson said.

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