PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Coronavirus: Vaccination (18 January 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing (a) retail workers and (b) other workers in public facing roles to be prioritised for the covid-19 vaccine once everyone over the age of 50 has been offered it.

Asked by:
Charlotte Nichols (Labour)

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent experts who advise the Government on which vaccines the United Kingdom should use and provide advice on prioritisation at a population level.  For the first phase, the JCVI have advised that the vaccine be given to care home residents and staff, as well as frontline health and social care workers, then to the rest of the population in order of age and clinical risk factors.

Prioritisation decisions for next phase delivery are subject to of the surveillance and monitoring data and information from phase one, as well as further input from independent scientific experts such as the JCVI. Phase two may include further reduction in hospitalisation and targeted vaccination of those at high risk of exposure and/or those delivering key public services.

Answered by:
Nadhim Zahawi (Conservative)
26 January 2021