‘It is vitally important to get a jab and booster’
As new figures show parts of the city lagging behind in covid vaccine take-up, the public has been urged to get jabbed to avoid potential new ‘controls’...
HEALTH chiefs in Staffordshire are urging people to make sure they are fully jabbed – and get the booster when it’s their turn – as Government ministers warn it will be down to the public whether new restrictions are needed at Christmas.
It comes as latest NHS figures revealed that nearly half the people in some parts of Stoke-on-trent are yet to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
The Hanley & Etruria city council ward has the lowest vaccination rate in North Staffordshire, with 61.2 per cent of residents aged 12 and over having had one dose, and just 52.4 per cent having had both.
Shelton & Joiners Square (61.8 per cent and 54.8 per cent), Cobridge & Central Forest Park (64.4 per cent and 56 per cent) and Tunstall (67.5 per cent and 59.9 per cent) are also lagging behind the city as a whole (78.1 and 71.0) in terms of both first and second doses.
These areas are in stark contrast to Trentham East, where 90.9 per cent of people have had their first dose and 84.3 per cent are fully vaccinated.
Vaccination rates are generally higher in the Staffordshire Moorlands (88.8 per cent and 82.8 per cent) and Newcastle (84.3 per cent and 78.7 per cent).
Six covid vaccination walkin clinics were in operation throughout the weekend with Stoke-on-trent having a seven-day coronavirus infection rate of 374.1 cases per 100,000 population. That follows 960 cases in the past week.
The city’s positivity rate – the proportion of positive tests – currently stands at 11 per cent.
The situation was slightly better in Staffordshire which has a covid infection rate of 369.8 per 100,000 population. That is above the West Midlands and England averages.
Newcastle borough has an infection rate of 361.9 per 100,000 population with 469 cases in the past week. In the Staffordshire Moorlands it is 382 per 100,000 with 376 cases and in Stafford borough it’s 343.1 per 100,000 with 473 cases.
Vaccination programme leader Dr Paddy Hannigan said: “It is vitally important that as many people as possible receive their full Covid-19 vaccine, both for their own health but also for the safety of loved-ones and the wider community, so we want to make it as easy as possible for everyone who is eligible to get the required doses or their booster shot.
“It is particularly important that people come forward to get their booster shot as they were one of the first people to get the vaccine and their immunity will now be waning.”
People have also been urged to take up the offer of a Covid-19 booster in a bid to save Christmas as it has been suggested that the booster programme will extend to include over-40s.
Professor Mike Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group (Spi-m) said that people should have the booster vaccine when it is offered in a bid to prevent more restrictions going into winter.
And Government minister Oliver Dowden said it was up to the public whether new controls would need to be imposed.
It comes as reports suggest that the booster programme will be extended to under-50s in a bid to stave off a winter surge in cases.