Vaccination take-up in Merseyside lower than national average

Available for over a year

Boris Johnson is facing pressure to respond to his health secretary's refusal to rule out new Covid restrictions before Christmas. Local health teams have felt the need to issue their own Covid warnings, despite all the national restrictions and guidance. The Liverpool Health Protection Board say that many people are likely to be hospitalised and in intensive care after Christmas through Covid admissions, due to more Omicron cases. Their main concern is that less than two thirds of people are double vaccinated in Liverpool. Somewhere else where the uptake is low is Knowsley, 69 per cent of people there are double jabbed, compared to 82 per cent for the whole of the UK. Dr Sarah McNulty is the the borough's Director of Public Health.