On Thursday 1 July 2021, the RSS Official Statistics Section and Health Statistics User Group (HSUG) organised the fifth in a series of webinars on topics relating to collecting and reporting statistics for Covid-19. This webinar series focuses on statistical methods for Covid-19 and involves sharing experiences and discussing approaches across the four nations of the UK.
Focus of the webinar
This webinar on vaccinations gave an update on coverage since the last webinar in April 2021 and in addition also considered the effectiveness and impact of the vaccination programme. It should be remembered that, as this is an area that is developing rapidly, the information presented here is likely to change over time and may not present the latest position.
Speakers
- Diane Stockton (Public Health Scotland)
- Chris Robertson (University of Strathclyde)
- Colin Campbell (Public Health England)
- Camille Tsang (Public Health England)
- Ted Dolby (Office for National Statistics)
- Simon Cottrell (Public Health Wales)
Vaccination Statistics for Scotland - Diane Stockton (Public Health Scotland):
- The range of work published in this area by Scotland was highlighted, such as the daily dashboard, reports on uptake by different population groups and scientific papers relating to the vaccine.
- Also produced are weekly monitoring reports of vaccine effectiveness, failures and safety along with analysis of vaccine status for those diagnosed, hospitalised or dying with COVID-19.
- The latest uptake data for different population groups was also showcased.
Chris Robertson (University of Strathclyde):
- There was an update on the collaborative work undertaken between Public Health Scotland and a range of academic organisations across Scotland.
- Specifically, the work on analysing the trends in different variants was presented and the methods used explained.
Vaccination Statistics for England - Colin Campbell/Camille Tsang (Public Health England):
- Vaccination uptake in England was discussed using data extracted from the National Immunisation Management Service (NIMS) and illustrated uptake by age groupings after the first and second vaccine doses.
- Data on vaccine uptake is available daily on the UK dashboard, broken down by UK Nations (for England down to small geographic areas).
- This dashboard also shows the daily numbers who have received the first or second dose of the vaccine.
Ted Dolby (Office for National Statistics):
- An explanation of the creation of the ONS Public Health Data Asset (PHDA) using the 2011 Census data, the GP Extraction Service, Death Registrations and linking with the NIMS vaccination information was discussed.
- An illustration of varying rates of ‘vaccine attrition for those over 70 (i.e. those who had received their first dose but not their second) was also presented.
Covid-19 Vaccination Surveillance in Wales - Simon Cottrell (Public Health Wales)
- There was a presentation on the surveillance of Covid-19 vaccination coverage in Wales using a national vaccination register approach and the application of enhanced surveillance for vaccination equality.
- The system for presenting equality data was presented and enlightened that the register provided flexibility in analysis and allowed the surveillance of vaccination inequality.
Further information
A recording of the webinar can be found on the RSS YouTube channel and presentations and the Q&A can be found on the HSUG website.
If you have other ideas for topics for Covid-19 webinars then please let the HSUG know at webinar@hsug.org.uk
NB: The next in this series of webinars will be on Long Covid, and there is also a webinar by ONS on Long Covid on 21 July.
Author
Hira Naveed is the RSS Official Statistics Section (OSS) Meeting Secretary.