CLOSE to 30% of the population in some parts of Harlow have yet to have their first Covid vaccine.

For comparison, uptake rates are above the 90 per cent mark in a fifth of England’s 6,700-plus districts.

Harlow is divided up to ten areas of approximately 8,000 residents.

Fewer than half of people living in parts of London, Birmingham and Leeds have had their first Covid jab, official statistics show. 

Britain’s landmark inoculation drive has been credited with saving tens of thousands of lives, keeping pressure off of the NHS and consigning the darkest days of the pandemic to history.

Vaccine data, compiled by the UK Health Security Agency, is based on the percentage of over-12s who’ve been jabbed.

Uptake figures are based on population data from the National Immunisation Management Service, which holds inoculation records for the entire country.

The overall figure for the UK — which began rolling out jabs in December 2020 — sits at 92.1 per cent, according to No10’s coronavirus dashboard

Professor Paul Hunter, an epidemiologist at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline it is ‘definitely disappointing’ that there are still pockets of the country with low uptake, despite ‘overall high vaccine coverage’.

He said: ‘I suspect many of these areas are areas of relatively high deprivation and/or have a high proportion of ethnic minorities. 

‘It is disappointing that the UK vaccine effort did not manage to do better in persuading these communities to take up the vaccine.’

There is not likely to be ‘much increase’ in vaccine coverage among the least immunised parts of the country in the coming weeks and months, Professor Hunter said.

He added: ‘Now we are getting past the Omicron peak, the large majority of unvaccinated individuals have already had the infection and will have acquired immunity so we are not at the beginning with these populations. 

‘I would still encourage people to still come forward for vaccination even if they have had an infection as hybrid immunity does seem to offer the best protection.’ 

Dr David Strain, a medical lecturer at the University of Exeter, told MailOnline the low uptake rate in some parts of the country is likely down to the perception of the vaccine, with ‘insufficient efforts’ made to make information about the benefit and safety of the jab accessible to all.

He said it is ‘worrying’ that the lowest uptake has occurred in the regions with the most ethnically diverse populations, as these are ‘the same populations that appear to have done worse out of acute Covid infections and therefore have the most to gain’.