Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will prioritise Bedford and Kempston residents for local access to the second tranche of covid-19 vaccination; and what his timetable is for the roll-out of the vaccination for for the highest priority patients.

The National Health Service is working to ensure a COVID-19 vaccine is available to clinically prioritised groups as soon as possible. Over 200 Primary Care Network-led sites started vaccinating patients this week in England. Over the coming weeks and months, the rate of vaccinations will increase as more doses become available and the programme continues to expand.

For the first phase, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has 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. Included in this are those with underlying health conditions, which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality. It will likely take until at least spring until all high-risk groups, estimated at over 25 million people in England, have been offered a COVID-19 vaccine.