More than three million people in the UK are yet to be vaccinated against Covid-19, it has been revealed. It comes as a government committee calls for increased efforts to get those in vulnerable groups fully vaccinated as infection rates continue to rise again.
A report by the Public Accounts Committee said it wanted to reduce the number of unvaccinated adults in England by half a million to 2.5 million, but that "fresh approaches" were needed in order to do so.
Pregnant women are one of the groups with a low vaccination uptake, with only 58 percent receiving two doses as of February 2022. READ MORE: Should Covid measures be brought back? The PAC report also outlines that people of black, black British and Pakistani origins were also less than half as likely to have had their boosters compared to those of white British origin, despite being more vulnerable.
Only 38pc of school children aged 12 to 15 have received two doses, compared to 55pc of 16 to 17-year-olds. Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “The Department and NHS England must build on the initial successes of the vaccine programme and redouble efforts to reach people who are unvaccinated and at greater risk of becoming hospitalised or dying as a result of Covid-19. “Despite work to date, low vaccination rates persist in many vulnerable groups and fresh approaches are needed.” The report states that it is “not yet clear” how NHS England “will strike the right balance” between increasing vaccination rates and the limited services available to do so.