Up to 17,800 people aged between 18 and 29 in Milton Keynes have still not had their Covid jabs

Two different of figures show two different stories about how many young people are taking up the offer of Covid jabs in Milton Keynes.

One of methods of calculation, used by the NHS shows more than 40% of the borough's 18 to 29 age group - - have yet to received their first vaccine.

This method, alarmingly, shows almost a quarter of the borough' general adult population has still not been vaccinated against Covid.

The other method, taken from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), shows 77.2% of local 18 to 29 year olds have had at least their first dose and only around 7,600 are left to vaccinate.

ONS figures also show more than 90% of all adults in MK have received at least one Covid jab.

Confusingly, both sets of figures are officially recognised. The NHS method uses a count called the NIMS denominator, which covers people registered in the National Immunisation Management Programme and is based on people with an NHS number registered with doctors.

But the ONS figures, which show MK in a far better light, come from the most recent official estimates on population size and are used as the primary source of population data in most other government publications and data analysis.

NHS England says these are less reliable at council level than national and regional level. They say the NIMS figures are more accurate at lower geographies - but they do not include people without an NHS number.

Nevertheless, the difference between the latest two sets of vaccination figures for Milton Keynes is astonishing.

ONS figures state 72.2% of local people aged between 18 and 29 have had at least their first dose. They show just 7,663 people remaining in the age group who have not yet been vaccinated.

The overall take up of jabs for everyone aged 18 plus in MK is 90.8%, according to the ONS.

But NIMS statistics state 17,812 young people aged between 18 and 29 have not yet received a Covid vaccination in the borough. Only 59% of this age group have had at least dose, they say.

And, according to NIMS, the overall take up in MK is lower - 76.4%.

The number of actual jabs given out in MK is disputable though. In all, there has been 181,768 vaccines and 25,953 of these have been on people aged between 18 and 29.

Anybody in Mk who is aged 18 or over can book their Covid jab via the NHS website here or they can walk in to the vaccination centre at Saxon Court in CMK without an appointment,