Fewer than half of all adults in Manchester have had a coronavirus booster jab, according to NHS data.
Figures published by NHS England, accounting for vaccinations delivered up to January 2, estimate that just 45.7% of all people aged 18 and over in the city have had a third jab.
Other northern cities have similar figures with 49.1% in Liverpool, 46.9% in Birmingham and 42.8% in Nottingham.
Boris Johnson is urging more people to take up the offer of a booster jab.
The Prime Minister said that “perhaps 30-40%” of the 17,000 patients in hospital with Covid “haven’t actually been vaccinated at all” as he urged the public to “behave sensibly” in the face of high daily Omicron cases.
Both Mr Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak made visits to vaccination centres on Thursday as ministers made a fresh push for people to come forward for their third coronavirus vaccination dose.
Speaking to broadcasters during a visit to Northamptonshire, the Prime Minister said: “What we’ve got to do is make sure that people understand the pressures that Omicron is causing.
“And the way to deal with it is for everybody to stick to Plan B, which we are, make sure that they behave sensibly, but also recognise the vital importance of vaccination.
“When you look at what’s happening to patients coming into hospital, a large number of them, perhaps 30-40% of them, haven’t actually been vaccinated at all.
“And that’s increasingly true of people who go into ICU, into intensive care – the large majority of them have not been vaccinated at all, and the overwhelming majority of them have not been boosted.”
The Conservative Party leader said that, as well as “increasing support massively” to struggling hospitals – including by helping trusts to source extra staff while dealing with high proportions of the workforce being in self-isolation – a key target was to “make sure that the people who are likely to get ill get vaccinated first”.
Hitting out at anti-vaxxers for posting “mumbo jumbo” on social media, Mr Johnson added: “The saddest words in the English language are too late – when you’re in ICU, and you haven’t been vaccinated, sadly it’s too late to get vaccinated. So get boosted now.”
A total of 247,478 booster and third doses of Covid-19 vaccine were reported across the UK on Wednesday, new figures show, with around 65% of all adults in the UK having now received a booster or third dose.
