Influenza: Vaccination

(asked on 9th November 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many flu vaccines have been administered as at 1 November 2020; and what comparative assessment he has made of the level of uptake of that vaccine in (a) 2020-21, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2018-19 as at November 2020 in each of those years.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 14th January 2021

Public Health England (PHE) publishes weekly provisional flu vaccine uptake reports, which give the proportions of those eligible who have been vaccinated and is available at the following link:

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-flu-and-covid-19-surveillance-reports.

Data for week ending 1 November 2020 shows vaccine coverage is the highest it has ever been at this stage of the season for those aged 65 years and over and for two and three year olds. In at risk groups, flu vaccination coverage is higher than this time last year but at comparable levels to previous seasons. For pregnant women it is lower than in previous seasons.

The following table shows vaccine uptake data in September and October in each flu season between 2018/19 and 2020/21, in England.

Patient Group

Vaccine uptake (%)

2020/21

2019/20

2018/19

Patients aged 65 years or older

67.6

57.9

45.2

Patients aged six months to under 65 years in risk groups

31.1

22.6

30.8

Pregnant women

25.3

26.1

33.0

Patients aged two years old

37.8

4.4

22.3

Patients aged three years old

39.3

4.7

23.2

Source: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-flu-and-covid-19-surveillance-reports

Notes:

  1. Data is provisional and from a sample of 87.6% of all automated general practitioner (GP) practices participating in the 2020/21 sentinel survey.
  2. Data for two and three-year olds is from a sample of 97.1% of all automated GP practices participating in the 2020/21 sentinel Childhood flu GP survey.

Monthly flu vaccine uptake data, which includes estimates of the numbers vaccinated, is produced by PHE. The first monthly data will be published on 26 November and will include clinical commissioning group and local authority level data. Monthly uptake data will also be published for frontline healthcare workers and school-aged children.

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