AN ANDOVER councillor is urging people to get their Covid jab following a rise in hospitalisations in Hampshire.

Cllr David Drew (TVBC, Harewood) told a meeting of Andover Town Council on September 15 that there were 31 Covid patients across Hampshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s (HHFT) three hospitals.

A HHFT spokesperson confirmed to the Advertiser on Monday, September 27, that this number remains the case, with 23 at Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, seven at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester and one at Andover War Memorial Hospital.

Discussing the trust’s recent reports, Cllr Drew said: “That has increased slightly over the past few weeks, but before that it was in single figures, and the vast majority have not been jabbed.”

He added: “If you have not been jabbed, or know somebody who has not, please please get a jab. It keeps you out of hospital.”

According to the government's weekly vaccination surveillance report, published on September 23, the latest estimates indicate that the vaccination programme has directly averted over 230,800 hospitalisations. Analysis on the direct and indirect impact of the vaccination programme on infections and mortality, suggests the vaccination programme has prevented between 23.7 and 24.1 million infections and between 119,500 and 126,800 deaths.

The figures for the Test Valley borough show that more than four in five people have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest figures show 94,539 people had received both jabs by September 23 (Thursday) – 84 per cent of those aged 16 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.