Prince Charles ‘saddened’ by low Covid vaccine uptake among black and asian minority ethnic groups

A recent survey by the Royal College of GPs found that 90.6 per cent of vaccine recipients so far have been white

Prince Charles has spoken about the lower uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine among some ethnic minority communities.

The Prince of Wales said he was “saddened” by the “variable uptake of coronavirus jabs” which has been seen so far.

Speaking at a British Asian Trust webinar, Charles called it a “tragedy” that not everyone should experience the “benefits” of the vaccine.

The royal said he was keen to speak about the disparity to “enable people from every background to take up the vaccine” and wanted “barriers” to taking the jab to be “removed”.

Earlier this month, a survey by the Royal College of GPs found that 90.6 per cent of vaccine recipients so far have been white.

Findings also suggested that black, Asian and mixed race people are 64, 47 and 33 per cent as likely to receive the jab as white people.  

On Thursday night, a short video in which celebrities urged ethnic minority communities to take the vaccine aired across all major UK commercial broadcasters (ITV, Channel 4 Channel 5 and various Sky channels) at 9.56pm.

Stars including Meera Syal, Romesh Ranganathan and Sanjeev Bhaskar addressed concerns people may have around the vaccine, and attempted to bust myths about the jab.

In a separate TV appearance on Thursday, comedian Ranganathan said he had had to speak to his mother about her own concerns about taking the vaccine.

“My mum is a key worker, where she works it’s a lot of people from South Asian backgrounds and so my brother and I were obviously very worried about her and we just assumed that she was going to be willing and ready to take the vaccine,” he told BBC Breakfast.

“And then when it came down to us actually discussing it with her, she said, ‘I’ve actually got some doubts’, and so it took us by surprise but we were able to talk to her about and explain the various issues and now she feels OK to take it.”