500,000 jabs
COUNTY’S VACCINE MILESTONE,
MORE than half a million Derbyshire residents have now been vaccinated against Covid-19.
The figure has been reached less than five months after the county’s first jabs were administered at Royal Derby Hospital and Chesterfield Royal Hospital on December 8.
And it follows news reported by the Derby Telegraph yesterday that the Derby Arena mass vaccination centre has itself passed the milestone of delivering 100,000 of those jabs.
The latest figures from NHS England now show that a total of 528,400 Derbyshire residents have had their first vaccine doses.
The number who have had their second doses is now increasing rapidly, too, with 37,139 residents having had both jabs.
A total of 62.85% of Derbyshire’s population aged 16 and above have now been vaccinated against the virus. That is approximately three out of every five adults.
Meanwhile, 97.51% of those in the county and city aged 65 and above have had their first Covid vaccinations.
To date, Covid-19 has claimed nearly 3,000 lives in the county and city, while more than 68,000 have contracted the virus since the start of the pandemic.
Vaccines have been administered at more than 20 sites across the county and city, including Derby Arena, churches, leisure centres, hospitals, pharmacies, health centres, care homes and in people’s own homes.
An army of healthcare staff and volunteers have pitched in hours and hours of work to get the county to the half-a-million jabs landmark.
This includes staff working extra hours after their usual shifts, staff who have temporarily returned from retirement and employees from councils and emergency services.
Looking at the rest of the East Midlands, alongside Derbyshire, Leicestershire has now also administered more than half-a-million first jab doses, but Nottinghamshire and
Lincolnshire have not. Every single area of Derbyshire has now vaccinated more than half of all of its adult population.
North East Derbyshire is the county district which has vaccinated the largest proportion of its population aged 16 and above, with 66.21%, placing it 15th highest in England.
Derby has vaccinated the lowest proportion of its 16-plus population at 50.08%, however, this is significantly higher than many other English cities, including its East Midlands neighbours Leicester and Nottingham.
Nearly a quarter of the 20 districts in England, based on proportion of their population aged 65-plus vaccinated, are in Derbyshire.
The Derbyshire Dales and North East Derbyshire are the highest districts in Derbyshire by proportion of their populations aged 65-plus who
have been vaccinated, at 96.48 per cent, ranking 14th nationally. Derby has vaccinated the lowest proportion of its 16-plus population in the county with 92.5%, but again, fares extremely well compared with other cities.
Of those in Derbyshire who have been vaccinated, black, Asian and minority ethnic residents make up 6.63 per cent, despite representing 14.45 per cent of the county and city as of the 2011 census.
However, this is a slight improvement from the previous week’s data.