Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation made of the risk of long-covid to asthma patients in determining the prioritisation of the covid-19 vaccine rollout.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) identified severe asthma as one of the conditions associated with an increased risk of mortality and was included in the phase one prioritisation list for vaccination in group four. Evidence on the risk of hospitalisation in persons with asthma is being reviewed by the JCVI as part of phase two of the COVID-19 vaccination programme.

The JCVI is monitoring the emerging evidence on ‘long’ COVID-19 and will review this as part of its considerations for the COVID-19 immunisation programme when robust evidence is available.