First-time figures on uptake of booster jab revealed
THE number of people who have received the Covid-19 booster vaccine has been revealed for the first time by Public Health Wales.
As part of the NHS trust’s daily coronavirus update yesterday, it was revealed that 322,591 people have had the booster jab in Wales to date.
More than half of healthcare workers (59.3%) and care home residents (56%), and close to half of care home workers (47.9%) and people aged 80 and older (44.3%), have had it since the rollout began last month.
The first booster jab in Wales was given to Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board orthopaedic nurse Ewa Syczuk, 50, at a clinic in St Asaph, Denbighshire.
Uptake of booster vaccines (according to PHW) Care home residents: 56% Care home workers: 47.9% 80 years and older: 44.3% Healthcare workers: 59.3% Social care workers: 24,306 (no percentage given) 75-79 years: 26.2% 70-74 years: 20.6% Clinically extremely vulnerable 16-69 years: 10.4% 65-69 years: 8.2% Clinical risk groups 12-64 years: 1.2% 60-64 years: 7.8% 55-59 years: 9.4% 50-54 years: 9.1% 40-49 years: 7.9% 30-39 years: 5.6% 18-29 years: 3.5% 16-17 years: 0.4% 12-15 years: 0% Nearly 1.8m people in Wales are due to receive a Covid booster jab in Wales as part of the Welsh Government’s rollout to vulnerable groups and the over-50s.
On Thursday Health Minister Eluned Morgan said the nation was on target to offer all of the third jabs by the end of this year, as well as offer all 12 to 15-year-olds a jab by the end of October.
“We’re on target in terms of what we set out in our vaccination plan. About 30-35% of 12 to 15-year-old will have already been vaccinated and we’re hoping that many more will now take up that opportunity during the half-term holidays,” she said.
“It’s more difficult to vaccinate children because it’s important to make sure that there are facilities to explain to them what’s going on; that there’s support for them.
“It’s a slightly different offer when compared to an older age group, so that’s why is slightly slower than the booster vaccine, but we are on target as we predicted.”
With coronavirus infection rates rising rapidly across Wales, First Minister Mark Drakeford has said booster jabs are vital in further protecting the population.
The latest seven-day infection rate across Wales based on the cases for every 100,000 people (seven days up to October 17) now stands at 681.9 – the highest rate since the pandemic began. Two local authorities – Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen – are currently recording in excess of 1,000 cases per 100,000 population.
However, while hospital admissions for Covid are increasing, the rise has been far more gradual than in previous peaks in the first and second waves thanks to the vaccine rollout.
Baroness Morgan added that it was highly unlikely that elective appointments and procedures would be routinely cancelled across the entire NHS like 18 months ago despite the fact Covid infection rates are soaring.
“We won’t see operations stop altogether, and of course we’ll be making sure that cancer support is there, we’ll be making sure that mental health support is there, come what may. But we will have to monitor the situation and flex depending on how great those pressures come,” she added.
“But there is also a responsibility on the public to make sure that they play their part by making sure that they take up the opportunity of the Covid booster vaccination and the flu jab.
“But at the moment the rates [of Covid] are really high in Wales, and we’re hoping the half-term holiday will bring a degree of relief because at the moment, many of the cases are among our younger, schoolaged children.”
The coronavirus booster vaccine dose is designed to improve the protection people have received from getting the first two doses of the vaccine, and combat any waning efficiency.
But to be effective the booster has to be offered at least six months after the second dose. It means anyone who had their second jab in May won’t be eligible for a booster until November. Anyone whose second jab was in June won’t be offered a booster until December.
In September, the UK Government’s scientific advisers recommended that everyone over 50 should be offered a third dose of a Covid vaccine, along with frontline medical staff and younger adults with some underlying health conditions.
At the time, ministers called the programme the “last piece of the jigsaw” as the country transitions to living with the virus.
Some though remain concerned that the speed of the rollout has not been fast enough to best protect the most vulnerable.
A total of 30 million people across the UK will eventually qualify for a third booster vaccine because they are in one of the nine priority groups most at risk from Covid.
Priority groups one to nine include: People living in a care home for older adults and their staff carers; Frontline health and social care workers; People aged 50 and over; Individuals aged 16 to 64 with underlying health conditions, which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality.