OpenSAFELY
Reports

Vaccine Coverage (Children): 1st dose

Description
Report on COVID-19 vaccination coverage in England, for all patients aged 5-15 registered with practices that use TPP SystmOne software. UPDATE: we are no longer updating these reports on a regular basis. If you do rely on these reports and data releases in your own work, please get in touch at the email address below.
Contact
Get in touch and tell us how you use this report or new features you'd like to see: team@opensafely.org
First published
08 Jul 2022
Last released
10 Oct 2022
Links

OpenSAFELY COVID Vaccine coverage report: first doses for 5 to 15 year olds

OpenSAFELY is a new secure analytics platform for electronic patient records built on behalf of NHS England to deliver urgent academic and operational research during the pandemic.

Since December 2020 we have been reporting on COVID-19 vaccination coverage (for patients aged 16 and over) in England using data from 40% of general practices that use TPP electronic health record software. In September 2021, the COVID vaccination programme was extended to 12-15 year olds. The Living with Covid guidance was updated in February 2022 to advise that vaccines would be offered to children between the ages of 5 and 11 from Spring 2022. As such, we are now regularly reporting on vaccination coverage for children between the age of 5 and 15.

The data requires careful interpretation and there are a number of caveats, please refer to our peer-reviewed publications (https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0376) for further details. While the publication describes an analysis of vaccine uptake in those 16 and over, it is relevant here as the same methodology has been used to generate our vaccine coverage reports for 5-15 year olds.

The full analytical methods behind the latest results in this report are available here.

Vaccines approved for use in children

The 30 microgram dose of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b2 was approved for use in 12-15 year olds in June 2021. In December 2021, the MHRA approved a 10 microgram dose for children aged 5-11 years. Where the paediatric formulation is not available, 10 micrograms (0.1ml) of the diluted adult vaccine may be used as an alternative. The Moderna vaccine has also been approved for use in 12-17 year olds.

More information regarding vaccines approved for use is available in The Green Book, chapter 14a, see specifically the "Vaccine Effectiveness" (p.6-7) and "Dosing and Schedule" (p. 12-13) sections.

Contents

Vaccinations included up to 10 Aug 2022 inclusive

Report last updated 07 Oct 2022

Group definitions

  • Patient age is calculated on the date of extraction from date of birth; note that, to minimise risk of disclosure, all dates of birth are rounded down to the first of the month in OpenSAFELY.
  • The patients who are 'In a risk group' have been identified using the criteria in Table 4 of the Green Book and codelists from SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19) Vaccine Uptake Reporting Specification Collection 2020/2021 (v1.5.3) as distributed by PRIMIS. This includes patients with:
    • Immunosuppression
    • Chronic kidney disease
    • Chronic liver disease
    • Chronic heart disease
    • Chronic respiratory disease
    • Chronic neurological disease (including stroke/TIA, cerebral palsy, or MS)
    • Asplenia or dysfunction of the spleen
    • Asthma
    • Diabetes
    • Severe mental illness
    • Learning disabilities
    • Pregnancy
  • Any patient who does not belong to a risk group mentioned above are described as 'Not in a risk group'.

Overview of Vaccination Figures to date

first dose as at 10 Aug 2022 second dose as at 10 Aug 2022
Group
Total vaccinated 852,334 529,739
5-11 10.8% (219,163 of 2,022,195) 3.8% (77,259 of 2,022,195)
12-15 53.5% (633,164 of 1,184,008) 38.2% (452,480 of 1,184,008)

Notes

  • Patient counts are rounded to nearest 7

  • Second doses are at least 49 days after the first

  • All second doses given in these timescales are counted whether or not they were 'due' according to the relevant dosing schedule at the time

Brand counts

Note that the total in this table may not be identical to that provided elsewhere and percentages may not sum to 100%. There are several aspects of the recorded data and analysis that impact on these totals:

  • It is not always possible to determine the vaccine type given; these patients are removed from the brand totals
  • Occasionally patients have more than one brand recorded on the same day; these patients are removed from the brand totals
  • We round to seven to mitigate against risk of disclosure; these totals are calculated from previously rounded numbers
First doses as at 10 Aug 2022 % first doses as at 10 Aug 2022
Group Vaccine brand
5-11 Pfizer (30 micrograms) 2002 0.91
Pfizer (10 micrograms) 217161 99.05
Other 77 0.04
12-15 Pfizer (30 micrograms) 607558 95.95
Pfizer (10 micrograms) 25284 3.99
Other 343 0.05

Notes

  • Patient counts are rounded to nearest 7

  • 'Other' vaccines are Oxford-AZ or Moderna

Summary Charts

Note: The 'In a risk group' includes those identified as being at higher risk of severe COVID-19 (for details see the Group Definitions section).

5-11 population

COVID vaccinations among 5-11 population

by Sex

COVID vaccinations among 5-11 population

by Ethnicity (broad categories)

COVID vaccinations among 5-11 population

by Index of Multiple Deprivation (quintiles)

COVID vaccinations among 5-11 population

by Risk status

12-15 population

COVID vaccinations among 12-15 population

by Sex