'Up to 50 per cent' of Doncaster's hospitalised Covid patients are unvaccinated or not had full set of jabs

The comments from Doncaster Council’s director of public health Dr Rupert Suckling, come as Omicron sweeps through the borough with record rates of over 2,300 positive infections per 100,000 people.

Dr Suckling urged people to get vaccinated which has been credited in keeping people out of hospital and lowering the severity of the virus. He added while intensive care numbers are lower than previous variants, there was still a significant number of people coming into hospital for treatment.

He also revealed that there ‘wasn’t one main area’ of transmission and cases were occurring in different workplaces, schools, health care settings and within communities on a more local basis. This has differed in the past where schools were the main driver of infections.

The virus is also having a big effect on the borough’s business community with Dr Suckling outlining transmission in a range of sectors from manufacturing, food distribution, car dealerships and office-based businesses such as HR and law firms.

Dr Suckling added that there are ‘two main groups’ of people’ who haven’t had a jab or the complete set of vaccines. He said that there are those who have had struggles to get access to the five key sites in the borough and those that are still unsure.

Council and NHS partners are said to be planning more localised vaccine pop-up centres to they can easily reach more people who haven’t had a jab.

On those in hospital without a jab, Dr Suckling said: “The picture here is similar to what we’ve seen nationally, with somewhere between 40 and 50 per cent of people who are in a hospital are either completely unvaccinated or haven’t had their complete course.

“I think there are two sorts of groups of people that haven’t had their sort of vaccine or their boosters yet, so I think there is still a group of people who have found it difficult to find the time or to access the vaccination clinics that we’ve had.

“Other people who are still undecided but I think they should take the opportunity to talk with their GP, their friends and family about what they think the risks and benefits are.

“There’s increasing evidence of the safety of the vaccines. But I’d be happy to speak to people about that more generally.”