Coronavirus: Vaccination

(asked on 17th May 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to allow immunocompromised patients to have their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine sooner than 12 weeks.


Answered by
Lord Bethell Portrait
Lord Bethell
This question was answered on 24th May 2021

On 14 May 2021, the Government accepted new advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and announced that appointments for a second dose of a vaccine would be brought forward from 12 to eight weeks for the remaining people in the top nine priority groups who have yet to receive their second dose. This is to ensure the strongest possible protection from the virus at an earlier opportunity in response to the B1.617.2 variant of concern, first identified in India. As a result of this, immunosuppressed patients who are waiting to have their second dose may therefore be invited for to book an appointment within this revised timeframe.

There are currently no plans to further reduce the length of time between the provision of first and second COVID-19 doses for people deemed to be clinically immunocompromised as a group. However, for some immunocompromised patients, the second vaccine dose can be given on different timescales. Patients undergoing immunosuppressive therapies, where clinically appropriate, should receive their vaccine doses at least two weeks prior to commencing therapy when their immune system is better able to respond. To maximise vaccine efficacy this may entail offering the second dose between the recommended minimum for that vaccine - three or four weeks after first dose - and the recommended maximum of twelve weeks.

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