3. The JCVI advises that:
3.1. “…the first priorities for any COVID-19 vaccination programme should be the prevention of COVID-19 mortality and the protection of health and social care staff and systems. Secondary priorities could include vaccination of those at increased risk of hospitalisation and at increased risk of exposure, and to maintain resilience in essential public services.” (
UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.)
4. The national vaccination programme is currently focused on, “the prevention of COVID-19 mortality and the protection of health and social care staff and systems”.
5. JCVI evidence strongly indicates that the single greatest risk of mortality from COVID-19 is increasing age, and that the risk increases exponentially with age. This is reflected in the priority cohorts for vaccination identified by the JCVI. Across England, nine cohorts are being sequentially invited for vaccination, with vaccination of the first four groups listed below well underway across the country.
6. It is estimated that taken together, these at-risk groups account for 99 per cent of all deaths from COVID-19 to date. The percentage of deaths attributed to priority cohorts 1-4 account for 88 per cent of all deaths.
7. The vaccination of frontline health and social care staff providing close and regular care to people clinically vulnerable to COVID-19 is currently underway is in order to protect them and the ‘health and social care systems’ that they support. Guidance has been issued jointly by the LGA, ADASS and NHS England to ensure local authorities with the process of identifying those serving in a number of roles in our diverse social care sector they are eligible for vaccination; this includes all care workers in this category, whether or not they provide care on behalf of the council.
8. View the guidance below:
9. Vaccinating frontline social care workers
10. Once those in priority cohorts 1-9 have been vaccinated, the vaccination of the remaining adult population will begin. The process for prioritising this remaining group has not yet been outlined. Local agencies may prepare information about their staff to be ready when the call for this comes, but national policy is clear that this should not be taken as a sign of imminent call-up for vaccination. To get the vaccination people will need to be registered with their GP.
11. It will likely take until late spring 2021 to offer the first dose of vaccination to the JCVI priority groups 1 to 9, with estimated cover of around 27 million people in England and 32 million people across the UK.
12. JCVI advice is that that the age-based programme they have set out will be most likely to maximise rapid delivery and greatest uptake in those at the highest risk. Within the guide set out by the JCVI framework, implementation should also involve flexibility in vaccine deployment at a local level with due attention to:
12.1. mitigating health inequalities;
12.2. vaccine product storage, transport and administration constraints; and
12.3. exceptional individualised circumstances.
Table: Number of people in each cohort for vaccination under JCVI priorities
1
|
Residents in a care home for older adults and their paid carers
|
0.7m
|
2
|
All those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers
|
6m
|
3
|
All those 75 years of age and over
|
1.9m
|
4
|
All those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals (not including pregnant women and those under 16 years of age)
|
3.7m
|
5
|
All those 65 years of age and over
|
2.4m
|
6
|
All individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality, and unpaid carers
|
6.1m
|
7
|
All those 60 years of age and over
|
1.5m
|
8
|
All those 55 years of age and over
|
2.0m
|
9
|
All those 50 years of age and over.
|
2.3m
|