Hertfordshire: Covid jab frustration after teens turned away

The 12 to 15-year-old age group vaccination programme in England began last month

Hundreds of pupils aged 12 to 15 have missed out on Covid vaccinations due to a lack of staff available to administer the jabs.

Michaela Knowles said her daughter, who attends Debenham High School in Suffolk, was left "upset and angry", after not being called forward.

Only a third of pupils at a Cambridgeshire school received the vaccine from Hertfordshire Community Trust (HCT) during its recent visit.

HCT apologised citing "high demand".

Ms Knowles said: "I was astounded when I rang them (HCT) and they said they'd run out of time and that 'we have no staff, we have no resources, we can't come back'."

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Debenham High head teacher, Simon Martin, said about 120 pupils missed out on being vaccinated during Monday's visit from the HCT immunisation team.

"It's frustrating not to get it all done in a day," he said.

He was told the team "were a bit surprised about the take-up" for vaccines.

"I think they weren't expecting as many," Mr Martin said.

Year 10 pupils at Debenham High School in Suffolk said they were angry and upset at being left out of a Covid vaccination programme

Peter Law, head teacher at Comberton Village College in Cambridgeshire, also hosted an HCT vaccination team on Monday.

The school had received consent for 900 pupils to be jabbed, but the vaccine was only administered to 400 children.

Mr Law said his school had also been targeted by hostile anti-vaccine protesters, who served pseudo-legal papers to try and prevent the jabs from taking place.

"The vaccination programme was always promised as the way we would get through this," he said.

"That's why its so frustrating if we hear that something that is a logistical issue, not enough staff, not enough vaccines is standing in the way of us not being allowed to focus on education."

Only 400 of some 900 consenting pupils at Comberton Village School received a Covid-19 vaccine

Geoff Barton, a former Suffolk headteacher and now general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said it had received notification of other schools being partially vaccinated.

He was concerned any delay would "undermine confidence" in the vaccine programme.

HCT said it was in the process of rescheduling catch-up visits with the schools.

The NHS trust was also looking into "delivering this vaccination programme at alternative venues, such as mass vaccinations centres".

Covid rates in Suffolk schools have been deemed high by the county council while Cambridgeshire schools have been asked to reintroduce face masks after a rise in Covid-19 cases.

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