Covid booster: Only 40% of eligible Londoners have had spring jab

After 30 June the spring booster jab will no longer be available under the NHS seasonal programme

NHS England is urging people to get their Covid boosters before 30 June, as new data revealed only 40% of eligible Londoners have had one.

Prof Danny Altmann, a specialist at Imperial College London said he believed people had become "blasé" about the risks of the disease.

The immunisation expert told the BBC the virus was still "causing misery".

After the June deadline the spring booster jab will no longer be available under the NHS seasonal programme.

The vaccination rollout began in England on 3 April, with older care home residents, people aged over 75 and extremely clinically vulnerable people aged over five qualifying for vaccines.

However, only 266,000 people in London have so far been vaccinated, out of a possible 670,000, according to NHS data.

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Although people who have been vaccinated can be infected with Covid-19, they are much less likely to suffer severe illness or die from the virus.

Prof Altmann said he believed the low uptake was due to people becoming wrongly becoming "complacent" about the disease, as it was "still there all around you".

"We're not out of the rough yet," he added.

"We are a country with a high ongoing prevalence, we have companies, including the NHS, with holes in their staffing, people recurrently off sick, laid low, and 3% of population with long Covid."

As a country, we have "taken our foot off the gas" in dealing with the virus, he said.

NHS England said across the country, 3.6 million people have had a spring booster to date, more than half of those eligible.

It said booster jabs were available at more than 240 sites in London and 2,500 across England.

Dr Rosemary Leonard, a south-east London GP said she was surprised by the low turnout for jabs at her surgery in Dulwich.

She said staff had struggled to fill vaccine appointments recently. She has also had to throw away supplies of the vaccine when booked patients did not turn up.

"I think there is a sense that Covid has gone away," she said.

'People are Covid-vaccined out'

"People don't perceive it as a risk and they also feel they have had so many [booster jabs] they must be immune anyway.

"People are Covid-vaccined out," she said.

However she warned that protection from the vaccine wanes after five-six months.

"We are going to have a cohort of people, older people, who are more vulnerable to serous illness from Covid".

Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that Covid-19 no longer represents a "global health emergency".

However, the head of the WHO said at least seven million people died in the pandemic.

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