Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Chapter 14a of the Green Book, whether it is his policy that children and adults who are not high risk but who live with high risk individuals and who recently tested positive for covid-19 must defer their vaccines for four weeks or three months.

The guidance regarding the delay of vaccination following a confirmed positive COVID-19 case for household contacts of individuals with severe immunosuppression is consistent with the general population.

The vaccination of adults should be deferred until clinical recovery to and around four weeks after onset of symptoms or four weeks from the first confirmed positive polymerase chain reaction specimen in those who are asymptomatic. In younger people, protection from natural infection is likely to be high for a period of months and vaccination in those recently infected may increase the chance of side effects. Therefore, vaccination should ideally be deferred until twelve weeks from onset or sample date in children and young people under 18 years old who are not in high risk groups. This interval may be reduced to eight weeks in healthy under 18 year olds during periods of high incidence or where there is concern about vaccine effectiveness.

The delay is observed to avoid the incorrect attribution of any change in the person’s underlying condition to the vaccine, to avoid health risks in certain age groups, and as COVID-19 infection produces a natural immunity to reinfection in the following time period.