A LEADING Harlow councillor has questioned what work is being done in Harlow to encourage members of the Black and Minority Ethnic Community (BAME) to take up an offer of a vaccine.

Harlow Conservative leader, Cllr Andrew Johnson asked the question at a recent meeting of the Harlow Council Covid Resilience Group.

He made reference to a survey published in The Guardian that said 72% of members of the BAME community were reluctant to take the vaccine.

There have also been reports of vaccine centres in Hackney, an area with a large BAME community, closing early due to low uptake.

Cllr Johnson was told that the West Essex Clinical Commissioning Group was set to recruit a specialist officer to deal with this problem.

Film of the news item can be seen below. Go to 35th minute.