Coronavirus: Government must reveal if pockets of UK rejecting vaccine, scientists urge

Experts have called on ministers to reveal significantly more information about the progress of the coronavirus vaccination scheme, amid fears there could be “pockets” of the country rejecting inoculation.  

The government is facing growing questions about the scale and the speed of the rollout, which marks the UK’s best hope for lifting the current lockdown.  

As pressure on ministers rises, new daily figures show 1,325 people died with Covid-19, the highest number reported on a single day since the outbreak began.  

From next week seven mass vaccination centres across the UK are due to start delivering the jab to the public.  

Boris Johnson bowed to public opinion on the issue this week and announced that from Monday ministers would reveal the number of daily vaccinations carried out, not just a weekly total.  

But experts on the Independent Sage group, set up to mirror the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said the commitment did not go far enough.  

They called on minsters to detail how many people have been offered a vaccine and how many of those had taken it up, warning “we need to know where there are pockets of people not getting vaccinated”.

The experts also called for transparency on how much vaccine was being wasted every day as well as how many doses the UK expected to receive and when.  

Mr Johnson has set a target to inoculate the top four ‘at risk’ groups, more than 13 million people, by the middle of February.  

The department of health and social care would not comment on calls for extra data to be published, pointing only to the prime minister’s statement earlier this week.  

The Independent Sage group also warned that Covid-19 would continue to spread through classrooms containing large numbers of children despite the lockdown.  

The group, chaired by former chief scientific adviser Sir David King, called for the definition of key workers, whose children can still attend school, to be narrowed.  

Many schools have reported a large demand for places, which should be limited to the children of key workers and vulnerable pupils, including those "who may have difficulty engaging with remote education at home" because they do not have a computer or a quiet space to learn.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, called on ministers to allow "reasonable” attendance levels to be decided by schools.

He said: "Of course, schools will be trying to offer the maximum number of places to families, but they have been put in an impossible position. They cannot meet the demand created by Government and reduce social mixing in the way the prime minister announced."