Most Covid patients in East Lancashire hospital had jab, says council leader

The majority of people in hospital with Covid-19 in East Lancashire have received a vaccine dose, a council leader has said, as ministers were criticised for “blaming” a resurgence of cases on people who had not yet had the jab.

Mohammed Khan, the leader of Blackburn with Darwen council, said six of the nine coronavirus patients in the region’s hospital had received at least one jab. Only three of the Covid patients at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS trust had not received a jab when they were eligible, Khan told the Guardian.

He added: “It’s no good blaming people or blaming part of the community. They have to find out why [people have not had a vaccine] … This virus has nothing to do with nationality, nothing to do with faith – it will move anywhere.”

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has been criticised for suggesting that vaccine hesitancy is driving the rapid spread of the Covid variant first identified in India.

Related: Disingenuous and slippery, Matt Hancock deflects blame for spread of India variant | John Crace

He told MPs on Monday to “look at what is happening in Bolton hospital where the majority of people in hospital with coronavirus were eligible for the jab but have chosen not yet to have the jab and have ended up in hospital, some of them in intensive care”.

Khan said he did not know why three of the nine patients had not taken up a vaccine when they were eligible, and health officials would look into it. He said a small minority of people had concerns about the vaccine but the vast majority were “desperate” to get the jab, especially as cases have started rising again.

Blackburn’s vaccine uptake is only slightly lower than the regional average: 58% of over-18s have received their first dose, compared with 64% in north-west England. The town is receiving 1,000 additional doses a day to try to counter the virulent B.1.617.2 variant, which is spreading rapidly among younger people in poorer neighbourhoods after arriving from India.

Watch: Hancock urges people to get the jab as Indian variant surges in Bolton and Blackburn

Among the over-50s, the town’s vaccination rate is in line with England’s average: 94.8% of that age group have been vaccinated, compared with 95.4% in the country.

Khan, a Labour councillor, criticised ministers for failing to place India on the travel red list before 23 April and for not alerting local health officials that residents were returning from parts of the world with soaring cases and worrying variants.

“They never told us somebody was coming back from India … if we knew about it, we could have knocked on their door and asked them to isolate,” he said. “I think the real issue is the government are not accepting responsibility [for the spread of the India variant].”

Kate Hollern, the Labour MP for Blackburn, said the additional 1,000 vaccines a day that had been made available were welcome but the number should be doubled so that all over-18s are offered their first dose by the end of May.

She said another local lockdown would be “disastrous and a serious failure of government”. Blackburn with Darwen and Greater Manchester have been in restrictions for longer than anywhere in the UK except Leicester over the past 15 months.

Watch: What UK government COVID-19 support is available?