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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Luke Traynor

Almost half of young adults in Liverpool yet to get their Covid vaccine

Liverpool has the third highest estimated percentage of young adults yet to receive any Covid vaccine.

Birmingham is the local authority in England with the highest number of unjabbed 18 to 29-year-olds (51.5%), according to new analysis.

The next highest is Coventry (49.8%), followed by Liverpool (46.7%), the London borough of Islington (46.4%) and Nottingham (45.1%).

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Matt Ashton, Director of Public Health for Liverpool, said today: " Please get vaccinated.

"If you start now, it can take up to 12 weeks to get maximum benefit from the vaccines, just in time for Christmas."

Overall, around one in four young adults in the UK have still not received a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, figures show.

Screengrab taken from undated video issued by Johnson and Johnson showing late-stage trials of the Janssen coronavirus vaccine (PA)

Latest estimates for the proportion of 18 to 29-year-olds who are unjabbed range from 23.5% in Wales to 29.2% in Northern Ireland, with 25.6% in Scotland and 27.7% in England.

In total 2.76 million young adults have yet to have their first dose, according to figures for vaccinations delivered up to September 1.

This is down only slightly from an estimated 2.81 million one week earlier.

First doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been available across the UK for adults as young as 18 since the end of June.

The figures have been published by the UK's four health agencies.

They suggest there is still a sizeable minority of young adults reluctant to have the vaccine, despite a host of initiatives in recent weeks to encourage take-up, including publicity campaigns and pop-up vaccination centres.

The real St Helens Borough Council testing team out in the community (St Helens Borough Council)

In total there are 54 local authority areas in England where at least one third of young adults have yet to receive any vaccine.

These also include the big cities of Manchester (43.5%), Leicester (41.8%), Sheffield (39.1%) and Leeds (38.6%).

Separate figures for vaccine take-up among 16 to 17-year-olds suggest Wales currently leads the other three UK nations, with 63.1% of people in this age group having now received their first dose.

Scotland is on 50.8% and Northern Ireland is on 39.9%.

Half of teenagers in England aged 16 and 17 have also had their first dose.

It comes as a group of scientists argued how all young people aged 12 and over should be offered a coronavirus vaccine as they warned that allowing mass infection of children is "reckless".

A person holding a mobile phone displaying the NHS app (Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire)

They have written to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson alongside some parents, carers and educational staff to express their concerns about the impact of the pandemic on education.

They argue that policies in England mean there will soon be a large population who are "susceptible" to the virus mixing in crowded spaces with "hardly any mitigations".

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