St Helens vaccination update
More than half the population in the Liverpool City Region has now been vaccinated against Covid-19 as shops and pub gardens reopen.
The latest figures from the NHS show more than 774,000 people in the city region have had at least one dose of the vaccine out of a population of 1.5m.
This includes 96% of all pensioners in the region and 92% of everyone aged between 50 and 64.
These figures should provide reassurance for public health bosses in the region that non-essential shops can safely reopen as almost all of the most vulnerable have now been vaccinated.
However, local authorities have urged the public to continue to be vigilant and follow social distancing rules even if they have been vaccinated in order to prevent another surge in infections.
Out of the city region’s six boroughs, St Helens has vaccinated the highest proportion of its population while Liverpool continues to lag behind, possibly due to higher levels of vaccine hesitancy among its ethnic minority populations.
The number of people vaccinated in each borough and the proportion of the population that represents is given below.
Halton – 63,935 (49.4%)
Knowsley – 75,487 (50.0%)
Liverpool – 213,961 (43.0%)
St Helens – 99,295 (55.0%)
Sefton – 150,385 (54.4%)
Wirral – 171,249 (52.9%)
However, some neighbourhoods have seen considerably fewer people taking up the vaccine.
In Liverpool, Princes Park, Toxteth Park and Wavertree South have all shown consistently lower levels of inoculation.
In Toxteth Park, for instance, only 23.2% of the population has had at least one dose of the vaccine, rising to 26.9% and 35.3% in Wavertree South and Princes Park respectively.
This could be due to the larger ethnic minority populations in these areas, given the higher levels of vaccine hesitancy among ethnic minorities nationally.
However, Knowsley Council has identified Page Moss, Stockbridge Village and Northwood as areas of low vaccine take-up.
Stockbridge Village has a vaccination rate of 45.9%, while Page Moss’ is 46.1% and Northwood’s is 46.4% – all higher than Liverpool’s average but below Knowsley’s vaccination rate.
None of these three areas has a large ethnic minority population, suggesting other factors such as deprivation could be contributing to lower rates of vaccination in some areas.