Covid vaccine: Fifth of 80-and-overs in London have not had first jab, figures suggest

Capital’s immunisation rate among elderly people ‘lowest of any region in England’

Nearly one in five people aged 80 and over in London are yet to have their first Covid-19 jab, figures up to Sunday suggest.

It makes the capital’s vaccine rollout among this age bracket the lowest of any region in England.

An estimated 81.2 per cent of those aged 80 and over in London had received their first jab up to 14 February, according to provisional data from NHS England.

The estimate for the whole of England stood at 93.4 per cent.

Figures for the rest of the country were: the northeast and Yorkshire, 95.1 per cent; the Midlands, 94.6 per cent; the southeast, 94.2 per cent; the northwest, 93.6 per cent; eastern England, 93.6 per cent.

The southwest had the highest estimated first doses given by Sunday, at 97.9 per cent.

Boris Johnson announced on Valentine’s Day that everyone in England in the top four priority groups, including those aged 80 and over, had been offered the vaccine.

The prime minister said in a video message sent out via social media that Sunday marked “a significant milestone in the United Kingdom’s national vaccination programme”, with a total of 15 million first injections offered across Britain.

“In England, I can now tell you, we have offered jabs to everyone in the first four priority groups, the people most likely to be severely ill from coronavirus, hitting the target that we set ourselves,” he said.

However Mr Johnson gave the statement two days after reports surfaced that dozens of “forgotten” vulnerable people in the UK – all in their 80s and 90s – had not yet been invited to attend their first vaccine appointments.

Merryl Warren told The Independent last week that her 93-year-old housebound grandmother, Ada Bryan, from Essex, who suffers from arthritis, anxiety and limited mobility, was still waiting for a vaccine.

Meanwhile, analysis has suggested poorer areas are struggling to match the uptake of more affluent parts of the UK. The worst performing NHS region so far has been east London, with just 73 per cent of over-80s vaccinated by 7 February – an area that was also one of the worst-affected during the second wave of the virus as hospitals became overwhelmed.

Both the north London and northwest London NHS regions were also among the lowest-performing areas for vaccine uptake in recent analysis conducted by The Independent.

Dame Margaret Hodge, MP for Barking and Dagenham in east London, has said that by Friday only 68 per cent of the over-80s and only 67 per cent of those aged 75 to 79 had been vaccinated in her constituency.

She added that among the clinically extremely vulnerable groups only 54 per cent had had the jab.

In a letter to vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi, she said: “In one of the most deprived parts of the country, vaccine rollout has fallen dangerously behind schedule. In health terms this is levelling down on an industrial scale. My constituency has already seen its local hospitals pushed to breaking point and one of the highest infection rates in the country. We need to do better.”