A sign points the way to a Covid-19 vaccination centre in Dudley.
Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images
The Covid vaccine is failing to reach thousands of elderly people who receive care in their own homes, because they are too frail to travel to vaccination centres or fear infection if they do, a care provider has said.
Cera said only about 1% of the 10,000 elderly people it looked after in their own homes had received the jab, and less than a third of its carers had been vaccinated.
By contrast, about 75% of care home residents have been vaccinated, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, said on Sunday. NHS England’s goal of getting all care home residents vaccinated by the end of last week was missed, but the Department of Health and Social Care’s target of completing the jabs by this coming Sunday is still in reach, even if vaccinations of care staff are lagging behind.