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. 2020 May;25(19):2000848.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.19.2000848.

Early impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and physical distancing measures on routine childhood vaccinations in England, January to April 2020

Helen I McDonald  1   2 , Elise Tessier  3 , Joanne M White  3 , Matthew Woodruff  4 , Charlotte Knowles  4 , Chris Bates  4 , John Parry  4 , Jemma L Walker  1   2   5 , J Anthony Scott  1   2 , Liam Smeeth  1   2 , Joanne Yarwood  1   3 , Mary Ramsay  1   3 , Michael Edelstein  1   2   3
Affiliations

Early impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and physical distancing measures on routine childhood vaccinations in England, January to April 2020

Helen I McDonald et al. Euro Surveill. 2020 May.

Abstract

Using electronic health records, we assessed the early impact of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on routine childhood vaccination in England by 26 April 2020. Measles-mumps-rubella vaccination counts fell from February 2020, and in the 3 weeks after introduction of physical distancing measures were 19.8% lower (95% confidence interval: -20.7 to -18.9) than the same period in 2019, before improving in mid-April. A gradual decline in hexavalent vaccination counts throughout 2020 was not accentuated by physical distancing.

Keywords: COVID-19; DTaP-IPV-Hib-HBV vaccine; Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine; pandemics.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest statement: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf and declare: HIM, JLW, JAS, LS and MR had financial support from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Immunisation for the submitted work; Public Health England Immunisation and Countermeasures Division has provided vaccine manufacturers with post-marketing surveillance reports on vaccine-preventable infection which the companies are required to submit to the UK Licensing Authority in compliance with their Risk Management Strategy, and a cost recovery charge is made for these reports; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Hexavalent and measles-mumps-rubella weekly vaccination counts, England, weeks 1–17, 2019 and 2020
Figure 2
Figure 2
Percent change in hexavalent and measles-mumps-rubella vaccination in 2020 compared with 2019, by weeka, England, weeks 1–17
Figure 3
Figure 3
Percent change in MMR vaccination counts in the first three weeks of physical distancing (weeks 13 to 15) of 2020 compared with 2019, by region
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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