The nursery where six out of seven staff refused to get inoculated

SIX out of seven staff at a nursery school who were offered jabs declined to be vaccinated.

Workers at the nursery in southern England were mistakenly offered jabs last week – but just one took up the offer.

The other employees – including childcare workers from South Asia, Bulgaria and Romania – are understood to have refused the vaccine, s o me o f them on religious grounds. The revelation will f uel f ears about l ower take-up of the jab among ethnic minority groups.

A recent poll of 2,000 adults by the Royal Society for Public Health found that 76 per cent of people overall would willingly have a Covid vaccination – but only 57 per cent of those from minority ethnic backgrounds.

Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, has spoken of ‘ genuine and deep concern’ that vaccination rates may be lower among such groups.

Last month, it emerged that while 80 per cent of staff overall at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London had been vaccinated, the rate was only around 25 per cent among black African and Caribbean staff, and even lower for Filipino workers.