Covid: One in five people in Ipswich are unvaccinated

Suffolk County Council is working with communities to "keep on pushing the vaccines"

One in five people in Ipswich have not had their first Covid vaccination, official figures showed.

Suffolk County Council said it was working "closely with communities to keep on pushing the vaccines".

Across the county, there were 6,215 new positive cases in the seven days to 14 January, down more than 40% from the figure of 10,732 the week before.

Cases were down across all districts in Suffolk, but 27 deaths were recorded in the county in the past week.

According to the government data, Mid Suffolk has one of the highest rates of vaccination in the country.

In Ipswich, however, 22% of eligible people have not had their first vaccine, compared to 9% in Mid Suffolk.

• 'We've had one in six staff members isolating'

• Teen receives vaccine centre's two millionth jab

• Door-to-door vaccine drive to tackle Covid in town

Stuart Keeble, Suffolk County Council's director of public health, said: "People are still coming forward to get vaccinated and the profile of Ipswich is a lot younger population and individuals will make a balance of judgement about what is right for them."

He added: "We will endeavour and work closely with communities to keep on pushing the vaccines, because ultimately that will provide us with the best protection against hospitalisations and deaths."

Meanwhile, he said it was encouraging to see case rates "starting to fall quite strongly".

"The one bit that is a bit more concerning is that we're starting to see quite a strong increase in the number of cases amongst the under 10s," he added.

Mr Keeble said the number of deaths was lower than this time last year and the "booster is doing a really good job and we're in a very different position".

"But clearly some people are clearly still losing their lives which is tragic for their families and loved ones," he added.

Suffolk was previously designated an Enhanced Response Area, but that status ended at the start of December.