Issue - meetings

Report attached.

The senior vaccination lead for North East London advised that almost 2 million vaccines had been given in North East London. More than 80% of people over 65 had been vaccinated as had in excess of 75% of people over 50. A campaign of booster injections would be starting shortly.

Work had been undertaken with the voluntary sector and faith groups to increase vaccine numbers and the outreach team had been put forward for a national award. Increasing numbers of vaccine sites were now available in community pharmacies and local primary care facilities. Vaccination centres and hospital hubs were also continuing.

A universal offer of vaccines for 12-15 year olds was being worked on and was due to start in the next week. Vaccines were already being given to 12-15 year olds who were considered vulnerable. Officers were aware of the communications sent by anti-vaccine groups to schools and this had been escalated to NHS England and the Department for Education. Guidance on this matter would be provided to schools. A third primary vaccine dose was also being considered for people with a compromised immune system.

Work was also in progress with Councils on completing the vaccination programme in care homes. The vaccination rate for care home and ancillary staff was improving and NHS clinicians were available to give additional assurance to staff.

Different approaches such as drop-in clinics were used with younger age groups. Whilst there were still some issues with younger people, the vaccination for these age groups was improving. Barking & Dagenham vaccination rates were lower, partly due to the younger and more diverse population of the borough. Work had been undertaken with faith groups and a vaccine information bus was used to visit different parts of the borough. Other approaches included webinars with a local boxing club and local businesses in order to give reassurances on the safety of vaccines. Work in Barking & Dagenham was ongoing and it was noted that 90% of Covid patients in the Barts ITU were unvaccinated.

The Joint Committee noted the update.