We’re seeing positive effects of vaccines

As the over 65s and people with underlying health conditions start to receive invitations for jabs, Prof Dominic Harrison says the Coronavirus vaccination programme is having a positive effect on case rates and hospitalisations in Blackburn with Darwen.

The borough’s Director of Public Health was commenting on the encouraging signs from the latest data on hospital admissions from East Lancashire Hospitals Trust.

Figures up to 9 February show that 56% of people with COVID-19 who become hospitalised are now under 70 years old.

This signals a significant difference in the risks of hospitalisation between those people who have been vaccinated and people in the age groups yet to be offered the vaccine.

Prof Harrison said:

The vaccination programme is having positive effects – every bit as much as we hoped it would.

Since the beginning of the pandemic most hospitalisations and deaths were in people over the age of 70.

Now we’re seeing a huge change in the profile of people with COVID who need hospital treatment, which suggests that the vaccine is offering the protection we hoped for.

Overall hospitalisation numbers for BwD residents are falling and are now back to the levels they were last October, before the third peak. There is every likelihood of them continuing to fall as further effects of the vaccination programme mean that younger groups of the population are protected.

I’m confident that when the over 65s and clinically vulnerable people have been vaccinated, we will see further falls in the numbers of people being admitted to hospital who are very poorly with COVID.

I am feeling more positive right now than at any other time in the last 11 months.

Last week Prof Harrison, along with Chief Executive Denise Park and Leader of the Council Coun Mohammed Khan CBE, wrote to the Secretary of State for Health & Social Care Matt Hancock, urging him to speed up the roll-out of vaccinations across East Lancashire.

Their call followed new research that highlights that Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley and Pendle have the three highest cumulative total COVID-19 infections since the start of the pandemic.

Coun Mohammed Khan added:

It is so encouraging to see that the vaccination programme is having such a positive effect here in Blackburn with Darwen just two months after the first residents received their jabs.

The vaccine is the best way to protect ourselves and our loved ones against Coronavirus.

It is a vital weapon in our fight against this dreadful disease. The more people in Blackburn with Darwen who are vaccinated, the quicker we sooner we can look forward to living with fewer restrictions.

Please take the opportunity to have the vaccine when you are offered it.

You will be contacted by the NHS when it is your turn to receive the vaccine. Please don’t contact your GP, wait for the NHS to contact you.