Community has almost 90 percent vaccination rate among over 70s
Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics shows much lower rates in British south Asian and Black communities
Jewish over 70s have have almost a 90 percent vaccination rate according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Data released on Monday shows that the only religious grouping with a higher uptake of the jab, are those registered as ‘Christian’ or having ‘no religion’, amid concerns over lower rates in Muslim and black communities.
The figures broke down vaccinations by religion and ethnicity, with the ONS showing the lowest rates were among those who identified as Muslim (72.3 percent), black African (58.8 percent) and Caribbean (68.7 percent).
The data for people identifying as Jewish and Christian were 88.8percent and 91.1percent respectively, while those with no religion were at 89.1 percent, and White British at 91.3 percent.
This comes amid concerns over uptake of the vaccine in religious Jewish communities, leading to a vaccination campaign at a pop-up centre in Hackney over the last month.
Ben Humberstone, of health analysis and life events at the ONS, said: “Vaccination rates are markedly lower amongst certain groups, in particular amongst people identifying as black African and black Caribbean, those identifying as Muslim, and disabled people.
“These differences remain after accounting for geography, underlying health conditions and certain indicators of socio-economic inequality.”
Layla Moran, Liberal Democrat MP and chairwoman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, warned about the “deeply alarming low uptake” among ethnic minority groups. Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s shadow health secretary, said the figures must be a “cause for deep alarm”, adding it “would be totally unacceptable for any community to be left vulnerable to infection because of inaction.”
Dr Doug Brown, chief executive of the British Society for Immunology, said the vaccine rollout has had an “extremely strong start”, but warned against complacency, adding: “We urgently need to engage with these groups to lessen any health inequalities that may be derived from lower vaccine uptake.”
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