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Vaccine summit being held in London as capital tries to catch up on jabs

Vaccine summit being held in London as capital tries to catch up on jabs

Leaders in London are coming together for a coronavirus vaccine summit in a bid to boost the number of people getting coronavirus jabs - as figures show the capital continues to lag behind the rest of England.

The city's mayor Sadiq Khan and Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi aim to drive up the numbers, with less than a month to go until the Government's target date of July 19 for offering a first dose to all adults.

The latest data shows that an estimated 83.1 per cent of over-50s in London had received both doses of vaccine by June 20.

But all other regions across the country are above 90 per cent per cent according to the figures published by NHS England.

Analysis by the PA news agency shows that the top 19 local authority areas in England with the lowest proportion of fully vaccinated adults aged 50 and over are all in London.

The lowest percentage is for Westminster (64.3 per cent), followed by the City of London (66.3 per cent), Camden (68.9 per cent) and Kensington & Chelsea (70.9 per cent).

The areas of London estimated to have the highest percentage of over-50s fully vaccinated are Bromley (91.7 per cent), Richmond upon Thames (91.6 per cent) and Sutton (90.4 per cent).

Dr Vin Diwakar, regional medical director for London, will also join the summit on Friday afternoon alongside other officials, health specialists and community representatives.

The event in Stratford, east London, aims to discuss what more can be done to accelerate the vaccine rollout and ensure that all Londoners can get access to jabs.

Assurances such as not having to share ID or be registered with a GP in order to get a vaccine will be discussed as part of the event, before Mr Khan and others take a tour of the nearby Westfield vaccine clinic.

At a Downing Street press conference on Wednesday Mr Zahawi said those at the summit will seek to "see what has worked and how we can learn from it and scale it".

He said there is "much more to do" and that they would be "intensifying, doubling down our efforts to get more people to come forward".

The figures for jabbed care home staff in London are also lower than the rest of the country.

Some 64.7 per cent of eligible staff in older adult care homes in the capital have had both doses of vaccine - well below the 72 per cent figure for the whole of England.

All other regions of England are above 70 per cent.

The three local authority areas in England with the lowest proportion of eligible staff fully vaccinated are in London.

They are Haringey 49.0 per cent, Wandsworth 50.1 per cent and Lambeth 53.3 per cent.

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