UK Covid live: some care home staff still waiting for vaccine, says minister, as all residents in England offered first jab

Latest updates: government says it has hit target of offering all care home residents in England a first jab

10.01am GMT

Nadra Ahmed, executive chairman of the National Care Association, told BBC Breakfast this morning that some care home staff are refusing the Covid-19 vaccine due to “cultural issues”. Commenting on why some care home staff have not yet been vaccinated, Ahmed told BBC Breakfast:

Some of it is to do with access and that is that people are just not able to get to where they needed to go to.

If they’ve been coming into the care homes, the GPs have not had enough vaccine for the staff as well, they’ve just got enough for the residents, which is the priority.

We know that there were some staff that were worried about the idea of having the vaccination.

But what I am hearing is that when the vaccination teams go into the care homes staff are coming forward. Some might be nervous but when they see their colleagues getting the vaccination, when they see that it’s all right ... we really are seeing good take-up from care home workers.

9.54am GMT

Liz Kendall, the shadow care minister, is calling on the government to clarify exactly how many staff in care homes in England have been vaccinated. This morning Helen Whately, the care minister, conceded that some staff are still waiting for jabs. (See 9.21am.)

After more than 22k deaths in care homes this is good news. But we need to know how many staff have actually been vaccinated (Govt promise was to vaccinate all residents AND staff by end of Jan) & swift action to increase take-up for those that haven’t https://t.co/QLhuMIhFw4