By Charlotte Webster-
More than one third (34.6%, 1,036,605) of people aged 80 and over in England have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of 10 January, new surveillance data from Public Health England (PHE) has revealed.
With over 80s belonging to the second priority group after care home residents and staff, as recommended by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the over 80 group are being given due priority. There have been more victims in the over over 80 group than most other age groups in the Uk.
As well as uptake by age, PHE’s new weekly report includes a breakdown of coverage by region – which is the percentage of all eligible people who have been vaccinated. More high-quality data will become available in the coming weeks to provide further insight into groups where uptake of the vaccine can be increased.
”Coverage helps determine how well the population is protected as a whole, and to look at where we should be focusing our efforts to increase uptake”, PHE England said.
Prime minister Boris Johnson recently announced a 24 hour day roll out vaccination programme, and is in a race against time to get as many priority groups as possible vaccinated in the quickest time possible. Scientists believe this would reduce death rates in that age group.
PHE England is then expected to target those in the age range of 70-80 once they finish with the over 80’s. The vulnerable age groups are considered most critical for vaccination, to reduce the overall death rates from Covid-19, and make a return to normality more likely at the earliest time.
PHE said it will continue to monitor the long-term safety, uptake and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine. Data on under-vaccinated groups, the impact of vaccination on cases, hospitalisations and death, the effectiveness of the vaccine at preventing disease and transmission as well as the duration of protection will be published in future reports.
Dr Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunisation at PHE, said:
”To have vaccinated over a third of all over 80s by this point in the programme is a great achievement and I want to pay tribute to all those across the health system who have made this happen. Although this sets us on the right path to getting back to normal life, we are not there yet and people must continue to follow the guidance that is in place to protect themselves and their loved ones.
These data will help us to evaluate the protection from the vaccine and to effectively target the roll-out of the programme to help control the virus and save lives”.