Vulnerable people are still being put at risk of catching coronavirus as a third of care home staff have not had the Covid vaccine, an expert says.
Professor Anthony Harnden, the deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), has said the uptake of the coronavirus vaccine among care home staff remains “far too low”.
Prof Harnden said that nationally only 66% of care home staff had taken up the offer of the jab.
“If they are to stop potentially transmitting to those vulnerable people who they look after and care for deeply, they need to take the immunisation up. The message needs to come across loud and clear,” he told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
However, he rejected suggestions that the vaccine could be made compulsory among staff if they wanted to carry on working in care homes.
“I would much prefer to be able to persuade by the power of argument than to force people or to make people lose their jobs because they didn’t take up the vaccine.”
