Report prepared 14 March 2022

Outbreak Management Advisory Committee

COVID Vaccination Programme Numbers - Summary

At 14 March 2022, Vale of York CCG has 327,637eligible individuals for covid vaccinations (from the national IMS Reporting Tool). This number changes frequently as more JCVI cohorts become eligible (e.g. 12–15 year olds), and as guidance changes re. the required time needed between the various doses. Progress re. the first (partially vaccinated), second (fully vaccinated) and booster programmes is as follows:

Being fully vaccinated with two doses is still the benchmark and for the Vale of York CCG registered population, we are at 82.74% of those eligible fully vaccinated and of that group 88.41% have taken up a booster dose.

When we look at the age bands of vaccinated citizens we see good take up of those individuals who we know are affected the greatest by the virus.

Covid vaccination rates far exceed those for any other campaign, including Influenza.

Of the individuals who are eligible for the vaccine and have chosen not to do so, by age the figures for the Vale of York CCG are as follows:

Vaccination Programme during Jan – March 2022

Following the successful booster campaign in December the covid vaccination providers have been responding to government guidance and instruction on next steps, this has included:

- Offering a primary course for 5-11-year-olds in a risk group and household contacts of immunosuppressed people this involved all sites eligible with protocols for this age group to ensure the accessed new Paediatric Comirnaty®

- Implementing the offer for the vaccination of non at risk 5 to 11 year-olds

Providers are currently determining the logistics and the contract for continuation of the covid vaccination programme alongside the request to return to business as usual, and to address the significant backlog of activity, 'the Covid Recovery Plan' which all providers are facing.  

As outlined in 'Next steps for the NHS COVID-19 Vaccination Programme planning and delivery - C1597, 23 Feb 2022' for the year ahead, there are three key priorities:

- continued access to COVID-19 vaccination; The evergreen offer

- delivery of an autumn COVID-19 vaccination campaign if advised by JCVI; to be confirmed

- development of detailed contingency plans to rapidly increase capacity, if required. Currently being discussed with providers

Our practices and vaccination providers are also working on the Spring Booster Campaign - People aged 75 years and older, residents in care homes for older people, and those with weakened immune systems will be offered a spring booster of coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine.

Lower Uptake Cohorts

We know that our Vale population has older residents, who became eligible earlier and take up was high overall. For both our Vale and City residents we see excellent take up rates until we start to see levels fall off in the under 50s.

We continue to make sure access across the City is easy, with pop up clinics at key locations in lower take up areas as well as pharmacy sites.

We continue to work on the vaccine validation programme, where students and residents who have had their vaccine in other countries show as unvaccinated on our NHS systems and this impacts our younger cohorts particularly because of the high student numbers in York Centre.

We continue to accept and plan for invites to local groups to address vaccine hesitancy as recent example was a residents meeting at Door 84 – where we attended to 'mingle' and chat and vaccinated 3 people with their first vaccine there and then.

Impact of Covid on Primary Care

During the last 3 weeks in particular our health providers have seen significant impacts to our staffing levels due to covid. Staff absence, with covid reinfection of fully vaccinated staff is such that we have had practices call for mutual aid from other practices to sustain urgent services. This results in routine services needing to be delayed. Whilst covid is not the focus of attention in the media, with the lifting of mandatory covid restrictions for most, the portrait of Omicron as a mild illness undermines its continuing impact on the services we can offer.  

Stephanie Porter

Interim Director for Primary Care and Population Health

Shaun Macey

Acting Assistant Director of Primary Care