HEALTH officials in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin had rebuffed statistics claiming that villages outside Oswestry have the lowest uptake of the Covid-19.

The stats were produced using NHS data, showing that Gobowen, St Martins and Weston Rhyn had the lowest uptake of the Covid0-19 vaccination with just 54.9 per cent.

However, representatives from the Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin Covid-19 Vaccination Programme said the lower figure is simply down to residents from the villages being registered to a surgery across the border in Wales, and have not been represented in the final total.

A spokesperson, said: “Practices based in Gobowen, St Martin and Weston Rhyn have had a good uptake of the Covid-19 vaccination.

"The reason that the figures appear low in the area is due to the fact that a large number of residents in these villages are registered across the border in Wales, at Chirk Surgery.

"The vaccines delivered by the Welsh vaccination programme are not showing in the English figures collated via the National Immunisation System (NIMS).

"The Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin vaccination programme is aware of this problem and is working to rectify this data sharing issue.”