Only 55 per cent of Black people in England in their 70s had been vaccinated against Covid-19 by last week compared to 86pc of white people of that age, a study showed, as celebrities and officials encourage minority groups to accept the shot, Reuters reported.

Britain has outpaced most other countries by giving at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine to more than a quarter of its population. However, people from Black and South Asian backgrounds, who have suffered a disproportionate number of deaths, have been more reluctant to be vaccinated.

Among those from South Asian backgrounds, 73pc of people aged 70-79 had been vaccinated by February 11, according to a study by OpenSafely, run by the University of Oxford and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.