Four in 10 over-80s break lockdown rules after Covid vaccine

Four in 10 people over 80 have broken lockdown restrictions to meet up with others indoors since being vaccinated in the past three weeks, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) had found.

Behavioural scientists have previously warned that compliance with measures was likely to fall once the vaccination programme was in full swing, but this is the first evidence that it is actually happening.

According to the latest ONS data, around two out of five (43 per cent) over-80s reported they had met someone other than a household member, care worker or member of their support bubble indoors since the jab.

Around 41 per cent of those vaccinated within three weeks of the survey also said they had seen more contacts, even though they would be unlikely to have built up sufficient protective immunity.

National lockdown guidance, introduced in England from Jan 5, advised that it was against the law to meet socially with family or friends unless they were part of your household or support bubble.

The ONS said that while some over-80s will have received their coronavirus vaccination before the national lockdown was re-introduced, a large proportion would have had the jab after this date and would therefore have been breaking lockdown regulations by meeting these groups socially.

Following the ONS findings, Downing Street urged people to continue to respect the lockdown.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "It's important that people continue to follow the guidelines that are in place."

Asked if the elderly were behaving irresponsibly, the spokesman said: "We are asking everybody to continue to follow the rules and guidelines."

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The research showed that around half believed coronavirus was a major threat to them personally before vaccination, but just five per cent were still worried after they had received two jabs.

Around four in 10 experienced side-effects, but the ONS found this was unlikely to prevent the majority from having a second dose. The most commonly experienced side effect was having a painful, heavy feeling and tenderness in the arm where they had their injection, reported by one in four people.

Despite the side-effects, around 19 out of 20 (96 per cent) said they would encourage others to have a vaccination.

The study showed that 99.8 per cent of over-80s said they had been offered a vaccination, of which 99 per cent had received at least one dose and 15 per cent received two or more doses.

Tim Gibbs, of the Public Service Analysis Team at the ONS, said: "The rollout of the Covid-19 vaccination is, no doubt, a huge relief to many people aged over 80 as we can see that almost half of all them, when asked, considered Covid-19 to be a major or significant personal risk before receiving the vaccination.

"This decreases to just five per cent having the same concern after hypothetically receiving both doses of the vaccine.

"It will hopefully also improve a wider quality of life for this group. We can see that one third of over-80s who had received two or more doses of the vaccine reported they would be more likely to attend a hospital for a medical reason since being vaccinated.

"We hope to start to see these wider positive effects of the vaccine rollout as it continues across more age groups in the coming weeks."

The ONS data also showed that, of the over-80s who had received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, a total of 67 per cent reported that they had met somebody they do not live with indoors since being vaccinated, although this may have been within their support bubble. Some 23 per cent said they had met their child or children indoors.

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