Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of prioritising people in Tier 4 local covid alert level areas for the covid-19 vaccination.

For the first phase of the vaccination programme, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised that the vaccine be given to care home residents and staff, as well as frontline health and social care workers, then to those aged 50 year old and above, 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.

For phase two the JCVI’s interim advice set out that the most effective way to minimise hospitalisations and deaths is to continue to prioritise people by age. This is because age is assessed to be the strongest factor linked to mortality, morbidity and hospitalisations.