Number 10 has pointed the finger at local health bosses for its failure to offer all care home residents vaccines by February, despite claims earlier today the goal was met.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman admitted: ‘It is the case that a small number of care homes have had their visits briefly delayed and that was a decision made by local directors of public health for safety reasons due to local outbreaks.
‘But those care homes will be visited and jabbed as soon as the NHS staff are able to go into those homes and do so.’
The Health Secretary Matt Hancock is set to celebrate the jabs milestone at a 5pm Downing Street press conference today, as the UK’s drive continues to ramp up.
It comes after England’s minister for social care admitted that the NHS has not offered Covid jabs to everyone living in care homes.
The Government target had been to get vaccines to all people living in residential care homes in England by the end of January. And NHS England this morning said it had hit the goal with the caveat ‘at every eligible care home’.
The ineligible ones are homes that have been mid-way through Covid outbreaks and deemed unsafe for vaccination teams to go into.
Helen Whately said that this was only a ‘small number’ of care homes and that they would be followed up in the coming weeks.
The NHS bragged almost 10,000 homes have been contacted in England — but did not reveal how many hadn’t. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said ‘virtually all’ elderly care home residents had received their first coronavirus vaccine or been given an appointment for it.
When confronted on BBC Radio 4 with cases of residents who had not yet been offered vaccines, Ms Whateley vowed to personally follow up the cases and get them jabs, encouraging members of the public to email her directly.
Care home bosses are now urging the NHS to vaccinate more care workers to give more protection to the elderly amid concerns that uptake has so far been low, with only a quarter of homes having at least 70 per cent of their staff immunised.
And they are angry about the decision to delay the second dose of the jab, which may prevent them loosening visiting rules, while actress and now campaigner Ruthie Henshall said visiting should be allowed because residents are ‘dying of loneliness’.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock will hold a Downing Street press conference at 5pm this afternoon, when he is expected to praise the success of the vaccine rollout after he said he was ‘delighted we have reached this monumental milestone’.
Care minister Helen Whately said today that a ‘small number’ of care homes still need to be visited by vaccination teams in the next couple of weeks
Care home residents were top of the UK’s vaccine priority list because they are at a high risk of dying if they catch Covid-19 (Pictured: 100-year-old Nell Prosser gets her jab at a home in London)
Covid-19 vaccines have also been sent to the Falklands islands to help protect them against the virus. Pictured is the Voyager aircraft being loaded this morning before taking off for the islands in the southern Atlantic
Britain has now vaccinated 8.9million people against Covid-19, putting it almost two thirds of the way to its target of reaching around 15m by mid-February.
The vast majority of these people – around 8.4million – have only had one dose of a jab and will have to wait up to three months for their second for full protection.
But, if the February 15 target is hit, Boris Johnson has pledged to consider beginning to lift lockdown rules from March 8, with school reopenings first on the list.
The Prime Minister said today: ‘Today marks a crucial milestone in our ongoing race to vaccinate the most vulnerable against this deadly disease.
‘We said we would prioritise and protect care home residents, and that is exactly what we have done.’
But NHS England said in its press release that Covid outbreaks had prevented some care homes from getting vaccines for their residents and staff – it is not clear how many.
When challenged on the Government’s claim that it had offered jabs to all care home residents, Ms Whately said on the Today programme: ‘I would say there’s a small number because of an outbreak where the director of public health has said that at the moment it’s not appropriate to go in that will need to be visited in the next few weeks.’
She added: ‘We have offered a vaccine to every care home where it’s possible to go in.
‘I know because I said we must make sure that we communicate… we emailed out to every care home last week and the week before “if you haven’t heard from the vaccination team, let us know” and so we’re making sure that anyone that says they haven’t heard would let us know so that we could send a targeted team in to do that.’
When Ms Whately was confronted with a story of a 103-year-old care home resident in Kent who had not yet been vaccinated, she encouraged people to contact her personally.
‘Anyone like that listening, or any care home that [hasn’t] been contacted, just let me know, I will personally follow up,’ she said.
The social care minister, who is MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, can be reached through the contact page of her website.
NHS England said people living at more than 10,000 eligible care homes with older residents had been offered the jab as almost 600,000 coronavirus vaccines were given out in Britain on Saturday – a daily record.
Nine in 10 people over the age of 80 have received their first jab, along with three quarters of people aged 75 to 79, the figures show. People in their 60s are expected to start receiving invitations for jab in the next few weeks as the rollout continues to gather pace.
Care UK, one of the largest care home chains, said that all but one of its 124 homes had already been visited by vaccination teams. It said that about 85 per cent of residents had received the first dose of the vaccine but it was expecting the proportion to rise once it received updated figures.
West End star Ruthie, 53, revealed how she’d had a distressing Facetime call with her mum Gloria, who suffers from dementia and is in her 80s, in her care home (mother and daughter pictured before lockdown)
But up to a fifth of care home staff have refused the offer of a Covid vaccine as bosses are taking legal advice over whether they can force reluctant workers to get the jab.
Data from a number of providers shows between five per cent and 21 per cent of workers offered a vaccine have declined it.
The leader of Enfield Council, Nesil Caliskan, said most care home staff hesitant to have the vaccine in her borough were predominantly ethnic minority workers. ‘The staff are heavily represented by BAME communities in London, and it has been difficult to get the messaging out’, she said.
Up to half of those in some areas with a high ethnic minority population are refusing the coronavirus jab, a poll last month revealed.
Social care minister Helen Whately said today that care home staff won’t be forced to get jabs.
‘We know that there were some staff that were worried about the idea of having the vaccination,’ she told BBC Breakfast.
‘But what I am hearing is that when the vaccination teams go into the care homes staff are coming forward. Some might be nervous but when they see their colleagues getting the vaccination, when they see that it’s all right… we really are seeing good take-up from care home workers.’
Industry bosses said it was vital that the Government push to get care workers vaccinated against Covid to try and stop the virus from spreading at all in their homes.
It is not yet known how well the jabs will prevent coronavirus from spreading because trials only looked at whether they would stop severe illness and death, which they do.
Vic Rayner, the executive director of the National Care Forum, said just 27 per cent of its member organisations had 70 per cent or more of their staff vaccinated as of early last week, adding that access to doses was the main issue.
She told Sky News: ‘The priority over the next two weeks is to get the vaccine out to 1.6 million people who work across care. So it is a big, big task and a big clock is ticking away around that.’
Nadra Ahmed, executive chairman of the National Care Association (NCA), representing small and medium-sized providers, said some staff were refusing a jab due to ‘cultural issues’.
She told the BBC: ‘Some of it is to do with access and that is that people are just not able to get to where they needed to go to.
‘If they’ve been coming into the care homes, the GPs have not had enough vaccine for the staff as well, they’ve just got enough for the residents, which is the priority.
‘And some of it is to do with cultural issues and some is that people just don’t want to have the vaccine.
‘We have to convince people that this vaccine is for them. That it’s for the staff to protect them and therefore protect the services they work in.’
NHS England’s primary care director Dr Nikki Kanani said: ‘I want to thank my colleagues, and everyone involved in the vaccine rollout for their extraordinary work in recent weeks, as it is because of their tireless efforts that millions of people have already been vaccinated, including hundreds of thousands of care home residents, and as a result we are a vital step further in our fight against Covid-19.
‘It has been a privilege to vaccinate some of the most vulnerable people and the wonderful people who look after them.
‘Many have had little contact with the outside world throughout the pandemic and so it has been truly humbling for all, giving them hope and importantly protection against the disease.’
There were however some concerns that older people who receive visits from social care workers in their own homes are being forgotten.
Ben Maruthappu, the boss of Cera, one of the UK’s largest home care providers, said that only 1 per cent of the 10,0000 older people it cared for in their own homes had been vaccinated.
The total number of people in the UK who have now received at least one dose of the jab, seen as the antidote for our way out of the pandemic, is 8,977,329.
With the number of inoculations given each day continuing to rise, ministers are confident that they will also achieve the target of offering a first vaccine to everyone over the age of 70 or clinically extremely vulnerable by the middle of February.
To achieve such a feat, vaccinators would need to give out an average of 401,512 first doses each day between now and the target date.
To accelerate the rollout, vaccinations are now being administered at more than 250 hospitals, 1,000 GP-led services, 117 high street pharmacies and 47 large-scale vaccination centres across the country.
Government data up to January 30 shows of the 9,468,382 jabs given in the UK so far, 8,977,329 were first doses – a rise of 598,389 on the previous day’s figures.
Some 491,053 were second doses, an increase of 10,621 on figures released the previous day. The seven-day rolling average of first doses given in the UK is now 374,858.
Based on the latest figures, an average of 401,512 first doses of vaccine would be needed each day in order to meet the Government’s target of 15 million first doses by February 15.
Is Britain already preparing for next winter’s Covid vaccine roll-out? UK orders 40million extra doses of Valneva’s jab — but won’t get them until 2022
The UK Government has ordered an extra 40million doses of Valneva’s coronavirus vaccine, taking its total to 100million doses.
The original order of 60million doses isn’t expected to be delivered until the second half of 2021. But the new order won’t be delivered until 2022.
It’s likely that most or all adults in Britain will already have had one of the other Covid vaccines by the time this one is ready. But infectious disease experts say people may need re-vaccinating in future — like what happens against the flu each winter — and the UK may also export to other countries.
Britain has now ordered a total of 407million doses of Covid vaccines – enough to give the entire population, including children, six doses each.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng claimed the stockpile was enough to ‘protect the British public in 2021 and beyond’.
Valneva’s two-dose jab — which is already being manufactured in Scotland — is the first of its kind to be developed in the West and is an ‘inactivated whole virus vaccine’, meaning it works by injecting people with a destroyed version of the real coronavirus.
This allows the immune system to train itself to attack the actual virus, without the risk of it actually causing an infection.
Valneva has already begun manufacturing its Covid-19 vaccine at its facility in Scotland even though the jab hasn’t finished clinical trials yet
The Government confirmed this morning that it had signed a deal to almost double its initial order for 60million doses of the jab.
It is not clear exactly why the Government has ordered the surplus, with its original order already enough to vaccinate half the country and the possibility of 200million more doses becoming available first.
The fact it is being manufactured in Scotland may have swayed the decision in the wake of a blazing row between the European Union and British firm AstraZeneca last week, which saw countries get protective over vaccine imports and exports.
Having a huge back-order of vaccines due to be manufactured in Britain would strengthen its position in the case of any international feuds in future.
Valneva is manufacturing the vaccine in Livingston, Scotland, where it expects to be able to make 250million doses per year when fully operational.
Of the UK’s doses, 60million are expected this year and the remaining 40m will be delivered next year, the Department of Health said.
The jab is being made ahead of time before clinical trials have proven how well it works, in order for supplies to be available as soon as possible when the study is complete.
Results from its second phase of testing, usually done on a few thousand people to test immune system reactions and safety, are expected in April.
All the other vaccine candidates ordered by Britain have so far been successful, with efficacy rates in trials suggesting they are between 62 and 95 per cent effective at preventing Covid-19.
A total of nine million people have received the first dose of a jab so far.
And last week brought two huge boosts to the programme when Novavax and Janssen both revealed their vaccines had been successful in clinical trials.
Both are expected to submit trial results to the regulator, MHRA, in the coming weeks and could add another 90million doses to Britain’s catalogue.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: ‘This latest deal is yet another weapon in our national arsenal against this terrible disease, and will ensure we have sufficient supplies to protect the British public in 2021 and beyond.
‘Backed with major investment from the UK Government, Valneva’s site in Scotland will be a vaccine production powerhouse, working flat out to ensure we can quickly deploy jabs across the UK if their candidate is approved, while supporting top quality, local jobs.
‘Thanks to our incredible UK Vaccine Taskforce, we have now secured a bumper portfolio of over 400 million vaccines, putting our country in an exceptionally strong position to defeat this virus once and for all.’
By using an inactivated whole virus, the vaccine works by exposing the body to the coronavirus in a low-risk way so that it can work out how to attack it in case the person gets infected with the real virus in future.
When it sees the virus, the body can send white blood cells and proteins called antibodies to work out the specific response it needs to destroy it before illness develops.
If the virus was alive there is a risk it could spread too fast and get too deep into the body for the immune system to do this before the body could stop it.
A dead version, however, gives the immune system the same blueprint to mount its response – and remember it for the future – without the virus being able to multiply and outrun it.
The technology is already used in vaccines to treat seasonal flu, hepatitis A, polio and rabies.
None of this type have yet been developed for Covid in Europe, but jabs developed by Chinese companies Sinovac and Sinopharm, and India’s Bharat Biotech, which have all been approved for emergency use in their countries, are also inactivated vaccines.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: ‘The Valneva vaccine showcases the best of Scottish expertise right at the heart of our UK vaccine endeavour, demonstrating the strength of our union and what the UK can achieve when it works together.
‘If the vaccine is authorised by the health regulator, it will be rolled out across the four nations as quickly as possible.’
If it is approved, 60million doses could start to be delivered to the UK by the second half of 2021.