Revealed: The areas where 1 in 5 over 80s haven't had a COVID vaccine

One in five over 80s have not got their COVID vaccine in three areas of London despite most of the nation having over 90% uptake, new figures reveal.

The East London Health and Care has the lowest uptake of any area in England with 77.1% of over 80s having received their jab.

The data is broken down by England's 42 Sustainability & Transformational Partnership (STPS), each of which contains a number of local authorities, NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups.

Most of STPs have now vaccinated over 90% of their 80s.

The next lowest in the country after East London are North London Partners in Health and Care at 78.6% and North West London Health and Care Partnership at 80.2%

Gloucestershire has the highest with just over 99% of over 80s have received the first dose.

Search the map below to see how many over 80s have had a vaccine in your area

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Health officials and ministers have not commented on why rates vary so widely across the country but part of the reason could be the lower uptake of the vaccine by ethnic minority communities.

Early studies appear to show a lower uptake of the COVID-19 vaccines among those from minority communities.

A study of health staff at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust found that more than 70.9% of white staff has received their first dose, compared to 58.5% of South Asian staff and 36.8% of black staff, the BBC reported.

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Dr Nikki Kanani, GP and medical director of primary care for NHS England and NHS Improvement said: "There is evidence that people from ethnically diverse backgrounds are most likely to be hesitant about getting the vaccine, despite being disproportionately affected by Covid."

Prince Charles has recently backed a campaign to encourage more people from ethnic minorities to get the jab.

On Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the government had hit its target of offering the vaccine to all vulnerable groups.

This suggests over 80s in worst areas have been offered a jab and turned it down, but this has to be confirmed.

The government has said uptake was higher than expected but there was still a minority of people who were choosing not to take it.

Nearly 16 million people have had the vaccine so far.

Looking at the regional figures all of London is still lagging behind the rest of the country with only 81.2% of over 80s getting their first dose while the rest of England all has an uptake of over 93%.

Here are the estimated figures for each region, based on first doses given up to 14 February:

• South-west England 97.9%

• North-east England/Yorkshire 95.1%

• Midlands 94.6%

• South-east England 94.2%

• North-west England 93.6%

• Eastern England 93.6%

• London 81.2%

NHS England figures also suggest an estimated 99.3% of people in England aged 75-79 had received a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine as of 14 February.

The estimate for people aged 70-74 is 92.3%.

Some 94.5% of residents of older adult care homes in England eligible to have their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine had received the jab.

Residents are classed as eligible for the vaccine if they have not had Covid-19 in the previous 28 days.

The equivalent figure for staff of older care homes is 69%.

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