Early vaccine supplies will be strictly limited, compounded by the need to have two doses. Therefore, we will be rolling out the vaccine to the most vulnerable in our society first. This will save lives.
The Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has made recommendations for the provisional prioritisation for COVID-19 vaccines. The advice is based on preliminary information on the vaccines in development, and provisional timelines for vaccine availability, and is subject to change.
The committee strongly agrees that a simple age-based programme will likely result in faster delivery and better uptake in those at the highest risk.
A ranking of prioritisation for persons at-risk is set out below:
- Residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
- All those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers
- All those 75 years of age and over
- All those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals*
- All those 65 years of age and over
- All individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality
- All those 60 years of age and over
- All those 55 years of age and over
- All those 50 years of age and over
- Rest of the population (to be determined)
*Clinically extremely vulnerable individuals are described here. This advice on vaccination does not include pregnant women and those under the age of 16 years.
There is no definitive timeline for how long we expect the programme to take. We are currently forecasting that Beau Sejour will be used to administer the vaccine until mid-May 2021.
We will keep islanders informed about vaccine availability and supply.
