Councils have been awarded extra government funding in a national effort to help areas with low vaccine uptake.

Councils across London have been awarded £10.9 million for the Community Vaccine Champions scheme.

Camden and Westminster were each awarded £485,000, Barnet gets £461,500 and Haringey gets £185,000.

In Camden, 38.4% of eligible residents have received the booster dose, compared to 62.5% in England.

Kirsten Watters, Camden’s director of public health, said: “We know that our residents want to hear about the vaccine from people they trust and in surroundings that are familiar to them. Prominent community figures have so far played a key role in communicating public health advice on Covid-19.

“The news of this funding is fantastic as it will help us to continue and improve our community outreach work to boost vaccine uptake in Camden.”

In Haringey, 37.7% of eligible residents have received the booster dose.

Dr Will Maimaris, director of public health at Haringey Council, said: “We are very grateful to have received this Community Champions Local Authority Funding from the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities.

“This funding will enable us to build on our engagement work with our communities where Covid-19 vaccine uptake is lowest.

“Haringey is a very diverse borough and throughout the pandemic we have increasingly needed to tailor our approach to our different communities to address specific attitudinal, cultural and linguistic barriers to vaccination. These have far-reaching implications for health inequalities in the borough, that we are determined to overcome.”

In Barnet, 46.3% of residents have received the booster dose, while in Westminster the rate is 35.1%.

In London, 5,760,871 people have received two doses and 3,835,887 have received a third.

In December 2021, according to NHS statistics, more than 4.6 million adults remained unvaccinated in the 60 local authorities across the country selected to take part in the scheme.

Vaccines minister Maggie Throup said: “We are doing everything we can to reach those who haven’t yet come forward for their jabs and we know some people are more likely to listen to those they trust, such as community and religious leaders – that’s why we are giving extra funding to our brilliant community champions.