The people you think should get a Covid vaccine next - from teachers to emergency service workers
Essential workers should be among those invited for a Covid vaccine after people in the top four priority groups have received their first dose, Echo readers say.
It is the Government’s target for everyone in the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s (JCVI) top four priority groups to have had their first Covid vaccine dose by Monday, February 15.
These groups are:
One – residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
Two – all those aged 80 and over and frontline health and social care workers
Three – all those aged 75 and over
Four – all those aged 70 and over and the clinically extremely vulnerable (shielding)
The current JCVI advice then sets out five further groups to next receive vaccinations – including those aged between 50 and 65 and those aged 16-64 who suffer underlying health conditions which put them at greater risk.
People in this latter group are classed as at moderate risk from coronavirus and known as clinically vulnerable.
The following groups are:
Five – all those aged 65 and over
Six – all those aged between 16 and 64 with underlying health conditions (clinically vulnerable) which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality
Seven – all those aged 60 and over
Eight – all those aged 55 and over
Nine – all those aged 50 and over
JCVI guidance on these nine groups adds: “It is estimated that taken together, these groups represent around 99% of preventable mortality from Covid-19.”
Calls have recently increased for essential workers, including teachers, retail staff and those in the emergency services, to be vaccinated after the first four groups.
Speaking on Wednesday, January 27, Home Secretary Priti Patel said the Government will work to prioritise police in the roll-out, but has not given a timescale.
We asked who you thought should be next in line for a Covid jab after those in the first four groups.
This is what you said on the Sunderland Echo Facebook page:
Suzanne Stevenson: “Retail workers, passenger transport workers, binmen, postal workers. The people we rely on daily and who are having to work.”
Alison Jane Donovan: “All essential workers who have contact with the public should be getting this to be protected.”
Kay Farrier: “Clinically vulnerable, then teachers, to help get the kids back to school.”
Kathy Stewart: “Police and teachers, in fact anyone who has to go to work should be a priority.”
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Rachel Bell: “The next lot of priority groups, e.g. the clinically vulnerable who aren’t included in the top four along with the extremely clinically vulnerable.”
Annie Brown: “Shop workers they have to be next these people have worked all the way through this with little or no recognition make them safe.”
Claire Smith: “Unpaid carers, they do the same job as paid carers with none of the wages, training or support often.”
Garry Johnson: “Farmers and food product industry, as we have all got to eat and keep a balanced diet, and it also keeps our own economy going, then charities who help to distribute food and essentials to vulnerable people.”
Richard Adamson: “I think the top four priority groups should get their second jab ASAP and then move on to public-facing workers such as teachers, shop workers, tradesmen etc.”