Guy’s and St Thomas’ refuses to say if 39 Covid patients have been vaccinated or not

By Grainne Cuffe, local democracy reporter

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust is refusing to share whether its Covid patients have been vaccinated or not.

Covid cases are skyrocketing in the UK – deaths are at their highest level since March.

Figures show that, as of July 16, there are 3,786 people in hospital with Covid-19 and another 63 people died after catching the virus.

The latest NHS data shows that Guy’s and St Thomas’ Trust is treating 39 patients with Covid, with 19 on ventilators.

The Trust has not responded to a request for the details on how many are vaccinated with one dose, two doses, or none at all.

It previously said it would not give out figures, but added that they were “far below the high numbers that we have previously seen”.

A Trust spokesperson said: “We know that the vaccine is effective and we would encourage everyone to get the jab to stay safe from Covid-19 and help us get life back to normal.”

But public health officials have previously shared data on the number of vaccinated and non-vaccinated Covid patients on wards.

George Eliot Hospital told Coventry Live on Wednesday that four of the 10 Covid patients on its wards had not had a single vaccination.

The Nuneaton hospital added that one patient had received a single vaccine dose, while the remaining five patients had two doses.

According to Public Health England’s latest Covid-19 vaccine surveillance report, by July 11 the overall uptake in England for dose 1 was 61.8 per cent and 46.9 per cent for dose 2.

Based on antibody testing of blood donors, 90.9 per cent of the adult population now have antibodies to Covid-19 from either infection or vaccination.

It is estimated that the vaccine programme has directly averted more than 46,300 hospitalisations.

The effectiveness of the vaccine against symptomatic disease after the first jab ranges from about 55 to 70 per cent, with dose 2 is between 65 and 90 per cent, according to PHE.

The report states: “Data is also emerging which suggests high levels of protection against mortality.

“Studies linking community Covid-19 testing data, vaccination data and mortality data indicate that both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines are around 70 to 85 per cent effective at preventing death with Covid-19 after a single dose.

“Vaccine effectiveness against mortality with 2 doses of the Pfizer vaccine is around 95 to 99 per cent and with 2 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine around 75 to 99 per cent.”