Covid-19: Car raffle fails to convince all staff to get jab

Vaccinated staff at PJ Care have the chance to win a Renault Clio E-Tech

A care group that offered staff the chance to win a £22,000 car if they had both doses of a Covid jab could lose 35 workers.

PJ Care made the offer after the government said care home staff and volunteers must be vaccinated by 11 November, unless exempt.

The company, which operates in Milton Keynes and Peterborough, said 35 of its 600 staff were yet to have a jab.

The deadline to have the first vaccination was 16 September.

Neil Russell said "if the chance to win a car makes just one staff member stay, it will have been worth it"

Neil Russell, PJ Care's chairman, said a lot of effort had been made in the past month to provide vaccines to 90 staff members, including a visit from a doctor to talk to them and answer questions.

He said the number of people who were not vaccinated was "coming down daily", and now stood at 5% of the workforce.

"We have some people who have very strong religious beliefs we're not going to be able to overcome," he said.

"[Some] spend a lot of time on social media reading all the scare stories and we're having to try and re-educate and overcome that."

Ben Weddup said he had his first jab as he wanted to keep the job "he loves"

Ben Weddup, head of maintenance, was not planning on having the jab but has now had his first dose.

"I've never had a flu jab or anything like that - but when it became mandatory and I started looking into it more, I felt I wanted to protect myself and everyone around me," he said.

"I've been 100% fine since having the jab - I realise I was worrying over nothing really."

• First Covid booster jabs given to NHS staff

• Car offered to care staff as vaccination incentive

• Call for vaccine period changes to be investigated

The car, a Renault Clio E-Tech, will be raffled on 11 November.

A vaccination bus was sent to PJ Care's Peterborough care home to encourage workers to get their jabs