I am publishing today the third of my quarterly reports to the Prime Minister on progress to address covid-19 health disparities among ethnic minority groups.
Vaccination offers the clearest path out of the pandemic and remains the key step in addressing the disparities in risks and outcomes from covid-19. My report summarises the unprecedented programme of measures taken to tackle misinformation and to increase both vaccine confidence and uptake among ethnic minorities.
Over the last quarter the Government, together with national and local partners, have responded quickly, effectively and flexibly to drive vaccine uptake. Measures include:
A bespoke plan for vaccinations during Ramadan, including the use of “twilight jabbing”;
Establishing vaccination centres at around 50 different religious venues, with many more acting as pop-up sites, to build trust and confidence within local communities;
Piloting family vaccinations with a view to encourage uptake among multi-generational households, where the risk of infection may be higher;
Allocating over £7 million of additional NHS funding to local sustainability and transformation partnerships to enable targeted engagement in areas with health inequalities and with communities that are not vaccine confident; and
Providing local health leaders with comprehensive data on vaccine uptake among those most at risk from covid-19, allowing them to take targeted action.
My report also sets out progress with the community champions scheme, which was launched in January. The 60 local authority areas participating in the Government-funded scheme recruited 4,653 individual community champions by the end of March, who are now playing a vital role in combating misinformation and driving vaccine uptake.
These combined efforts have led to increases in both positive vaccine sentiment and vaccine uptake across all ethnic groups over the last quarter. Vaccine confidence has increased in three consecutive research periods and the vast majority of people say they have already been vaccinated, or would be likely to accept a vaccine.
The Government are not complacent. The relatively low uptake rates for some ethnic groups and emerging new variants remain areas of concern. The Government will continue to encourage everyone to take the vaccine when offered.
My report sets out a number of next steps, including improving our understanding of how the pandemic has impacted frontline healthcare workers, investigating any practical barriers to vaccine uptake by ethnicity, and improving the quality of ethnicity data in health records.
My fourth and final report will provide a further update and will include recommendations on how this work to address covid-19 disparities should be taken forward, as part of our longer term strategy to tackle health inequalities.
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