North Yorkshire Public Health Director Louise Wallace told a county council executive meeting that one of the approaches would be whether the transportation and location of vaccination centers had made it easier for residents to access Pfizer vaccines. and Astra Zeneca that are used in the county.
She spoke just two days after the authority announced it would shut down vaccination sites at Harrogate’s Great Yorkshire Showground and Ripon Racecourse in August, saying mobile vaccination units would help target areas reporting a sudden spike in Covid cases.
A report to the meeting indicated that around 64.98 percent of the county’s population, excluding children, have received at least one Covid-19 vaccine, compared to the average rate in England of 53.38 percent.
The council and Local Resilience Forum have provided site logistical support, transportation, volunteers, and waste disposal for the vaccination program, which is being overseen by the North Yorkshire and York Vaccination Assurance Group of multiple agencies, chaired by Ms. Wallace.
The group aims to identify where there may be low levels in vaccine uptake and implement interventions to ensure equity in vaccination implementation in North Yorkshire and York.
After learning of the relatively high rate of acceptance of the Covid vaccine in the county, the council’s Health Scrutiny Committee chair, Councilman John Ennis, asked if officials would use the lessons learned as a springboard to address the low rates. acceptance of other vaccines in the county. , like MMR.
The latest digital figures from the NHS, released in September 2019, show that while coverage had continued to decline for all routine vaccinations across the country, North Yorkshire had lower uptake than several of its neighbors.
The county’s vaccination consumption rate for the two-dose MMR vaccine was 89 percent, compared to 96.4 percent in Durham County and close to 95 percent in areas like North Lincolnshire and Barnsley. .
Doctors have warned that declining childhood immunization rates risk a resurgence of deadly and life-changing diseases of the past. Public health experts have cautioned that successful vaccination programs need a “system-wide approach,” saying that services have been “fragmented” since changes to public health commissioning were made in 2012.
While last year, Ms. Wallace’s predecessor warned that county public health services faced difficult decisions due to cuts in government funding, she told the meeting that she would prioritize vaccination programs.
He said the authority had used its experiences from previous vaccination programs, such as the flu and MMR, to maximize coverage with the Covid vaccine.
Ms. Wallace said: “We will take some of the lessons that we have learned and see why this vaccination program has had a fairly high acceptance overall. We have learned quite a bit about why people committed to this and we will see why some people have doubts about vaccines and try to break the myths. “
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Source: www.yorkshirepost.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-05-26 07:20:53
