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Covid Vaccine's First Phase Priority List Confirmed For UK

Covid Vaccine's First Phase Priority List Confirmed For UK

Care home residents are first in line

Amelia Ward

Amelia Ward

The priority list for people to get the newly approved coronavirus vaccine has been confirmed, with care home residents and their carers the first in line.

The Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation (JCVI) posted the list today, after the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was approved for use in the UK by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA).

  1. Residents in care homes for older adults and their carers
  2. People aged 80 and over and frontline health workers
  3. People aged 75 and over
  4. People aged 70 and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
  5. People aged 65 and over
  6. People aged 16 to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality
  7. People aged 60 and over
  8. People aged 55 and over
  9. People aged 50 and over

The list is a national prioritisation order and is not affected by the tier system that is now in place following the end of the second national lockdown.

PA

The UK is the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine for mass rollout.

Regulator MHRA says it is safe and will provide up to 95 percent protection against Covid-19, with immunisation potentially starting in days for those classed as high priority.

The government has already ordered doses to vaccinate 20m people - with each person needing two jabs each.

The first 800,000 doses are set to arrive in the next few days.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC: "From next week, we'll be able to start rolling this out.

"We'll start with those who are most vulnerable to coronavirus.

"Once we've protected the most vulnerable it will help us all get back to normal and back to all the things that we love."

PA

It's the fastest vaccine to be developed ever - taking just 10 months to go from inception to being regulated.

In a statement, a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "The Government has today accepted the recommendation from the independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to approve Pfizer/BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine for use.

The vaccine needs to be kept at -70C, but it can be stored for up to five days in a fridge, at 2-8°C.

The trial showed that the vaccine is equally as effective in younger people as those over 65 - who are most at risk. There was no difference found between volunteers of different gender, race or ethnicity.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Amelia is a journalist at LADbible. After studying journalism at Liverpool John Moores and Salford Uni (don't ask), she went into PR and then the world of music. After a few years working on festivals and events, she went back to her roots. In her spare time, Amelia likes music, Liverpool FC, and spending good, quality time with her cat, Paul. You can contact Amelia at [email protected].

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