Evening Standard Comment: We must address London’s vaccination problem

Vaccines have acted not only as our path out of lockdown, but as a return ticket to normality. However, we have today revealed the shockingly large pockets of the capital where people are yet to receive even one jab.

Nine London boroughs are each home to more than 100,000 unvaccinated residents aged 18 or older. In Westminster, an astonishing 40 per cent are unvaccinated.

These people are putting themselves in unnecessary and potentially grave danger, should they contract the virus. Nearly three-quarters of patients admitted to intensive care were unvaccinated, according to this week’s Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre. That figure rises to more than 90 per cent among those aged 18 to 39.

A large and persistent unvaccinated population is also a risk to their community, city and country. We have seen in the last few days Austria return to a national lockdown, while restrictions are being reimposed across the continent.

London has a lower proportion of double-vaccinated people than Austria as a whole. If we want to stay open, keep our economy going and prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed, we must get as many jabs in as many arms as possible. A pandemic of the unvaccinated cannot be allowed to precipitate a return to restrictions for all.