Health Secretary Matt Hancock has urged all social care staff to take the Covid vaccine after he revealed around a third had yet to receive a first jab.
The call came after the government hit its target for all 15m people in the first four priority groups identified by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) committee to be offered a first dose by 15 February.
“For social care staff it’s around two thirds, so we’ve still got a third who need to come forward,” Hancock (pictured) told the BBC.
“And that’s obviously incredibly important,” he added.
The Health Secretary's call follows a warning by JCVI deputy chairman Professor Anthony Harnden that the uptake of the vaccine among care home staff is “far too low”.
Harnden told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on 13 February that 66 per cent of staff had taken up the offer of a jab.
Hancock meanwhile also revealed around a fifth of NHS workers have yet to receive a vaccine.
“Again, there’s a long way to go and we’ve just got to make sure that everybody comes forward and gets the jab,” he added.
“It’s important to you, it’s important for your patients and of course it’s important for the whole of society that as many people get vaccinated as possible.”
