THE South African variant of coronavirus in Ealing has led to some patients 'insisting on a specific vaccine' when called up to get their jabs, it has been reported.

Ealing Clinical Commissioning Group's deputy managing director, Neha Unadkat updated councillors on the vaccination programme and risks to it in a meeting on February 10.

Addressing the council's Health and Adults Social Services Scrutiny Panel, she told of some impact being seen from the South African strain, after a case was discovered in W7 leading to mass testing of 10,000 people living and working in the Hanwell and West Ealing area of the borough.

It has been reported nationally that early research on the strain has suggested the Oxford//AstraZeneca vaccine is less effective against it.

Ms Unadkat said: "The whole messaging around the SA variant in Ealing in particular and the AZ vaccine has added additional complexity, with patients insisting on a specific vaccine.

"But we do encourage patients to take their vaccine that is available on that day in that centre."

But she added: "Obviously the SA variant has caused a little bit of anxiety but we're now getting through that and really starting to get these messages through and we have had good uptake, because we don't want to waste any of this vaccine and we're ready to move on to the next two cohorts when we're told."

The health chief also explained while the programme was on track to meet its February 15 target, work was being done to combat hesitancy fears as staff are getting to the 'difficult part' of the cohort of people unsure whether they want the vaccine.

As of February 8, 16,694 people have been vaccinated at the Dominion Centre in Southall, but Ms Unadkat said the site had been 'struggling' in the last two weeks to get patients in for their jabs.

She added: "We have had extra staff deployed to call patients over the weekend and evenings.

"I know it's frustrating for some patients, we're calling them two or three times but we need to make sure everybody has had the opportunity and had time to think and then are getting that offer to get their vaccine."

Data shared at the meeting showed how the people living in more deprived areas had a lower percentage of vaccine uptake and further data showed the huge gap between vaccine uptake between ethnic groups.

Just 48% of Black or Black British people were recorded to have had the vaccine, compared to 79% of white people.

The record for Asian or Asian British people was 71%.

Concerns were also raised by councillor Andrew Steed at the 'surprising' latest data that shows a low uptake of the vaccine among care home workers in the borough.

While 84% of care home residents have been vaccinated, just 47% of care home staff have had their dose.

Ealing Council adult services director, Kerry Stevens said he thought the percentage was concerning and that a significant work group was looking at this.

He said: "There's been a number of returns to care homes to ensure that care home staff are given multiple opportunities to access vaccine and the communications and education strategy with care staff across the care sector is key.

"We know the care workforce in Ealing and across London does have disproportionate levels of representation from certain groups and communities and we think this may be impacting on some of the hesitancy.

"But we also know there's some challenges for people to access information through routes other work groups would find more accessible."

Logistical challenges such as shift patterns and night rotas were also discussed as an issue.