‘Vaccine confidence more than tripled in minority ethnic after NHS campaign’

VACCINE uptake has more than tripled among Black British and Asian ethnic communities (BAME) between February and April this year, a survey says, adding that this trend is expected to continue for younger age groups.

More people from ethnic and religious groups now intend to say yes to protection from the Covid-19 virus, with an increase of 21 per cent in Muslims and 18 per cent in Christians, says the survey analysis produced by ORB International and Vaccine Confidence Project, which also shows an 18 per cent increase in under 45 people from ethnic minority communities who are open to getting the vaccine.

About 63 per cent of all the 16, 610 people in the survey responded to definitely getting the jab and a further 21 per cent said they are likely to accept.

The NHS has been seeing a huge jump in the number of people coming forward for a Covid-19 jab since the launch of its plan to tackle vaccine hesitancy with a spike seen in adults under 45, most of them who said they will definitely get their vaccine. Comedian Sir Lenny Henry, TV star Adil Ray and Great British Bake Off star Nadiya Hussain were some of the highlights of the campaign.

People leave a mobile vaccination bus after receiving their Covid-19 vaccines in Bolton. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Particularly significant is the increase seen in vaccine confidence among Muslim communities which is said to be due to NHS’ pop-up clinics and its use of more than 130 places of worship as vaccine sites.

Local NHS teams have also been working closely with local community leaders, translating materials into more than 20 languages and tackling misinformation on social media to ensure that everyone feels confident in getting the Covid-19 vaccine.

GP and NHS national medical director for primary care, Dr Nikki Kanani, said, “Tackling vaccine hesitancy has been at the heart of the NHS vaccination programme, the biggest in NHS history, which has so far delivered more than 55 million doses across England."

Dr Farzana Hussain, GP at The Project Surgery, said, “The increasing vaccine uptake among various ethnic and religious communities is no happy accident – it is fantastic to see the hard work of colleagues rewarded.”