I’m so grateful for the work of staff and volunteers across Dulwich and West Norwood to roll out the Covid-19 vaccine as quickly as possible. The vaccine now offers genuine hope of an end to the heartbreak, pain, restrictions and hardships of the pandemic.  However, it is as true locally as it is globally that none of us is safe until all of us are safe. 

Vaccination programmes rely on high levels of take up to be effective, but data from the roll out so far clearly shows that vaccine hesitancy is highest in some of the communities and occupations who are most at risk of coronavirus, including some Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, and amongst social care workers.

Our local health care teams, Lambeth and Southwark Councils are all working hard to address vaccine hesitancy, and this is driving up the vaccination rate week by week, but this important is time-consuming to deliver and more funding from the Government is needed. You can watch my speech in Parliament here >>