More than 60% of critical care patients with Covid in England not jabbed

More than 60% of patients admitted to critical care in England with confirmed Covid-19 in December were unvaccinated, the latest figures show.

A report from the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC), published on Friday, said that the percentage had begun to rise again in November, after decreasing in the previous months.

It stated that in May, 75% of patients admitted to critical care with the virus were unvaccinated, falling to 47% in October “consistent with the decreasing proportion of the general population who were unvaccinated”, but rising to 50.8% in November and 60.8% in mid-December.

The figures were for patients admitted from May 1 to December 15 this year.

For December, London had the highest percentage of unvaccinated critical care patients (66.7%), followed by the South West (66.2%) and then the North West (64.8%).

The lowest was the South East of England, at 50.6%.

Of those in critical care beds across England in December, 2.8% had one dose of vaccine, 27.5% had two doses, and 8.9% had a booster.

The median age at admission of critically ill patients across the eight-month period was 50 years old for the unvaccinated, 52 for those who had one dose and 64 for those who had two or more doses of vaccine, the report said.