Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has met our mid-February target to offer the first dose of the vaccine to everyone over 70 and everyone with an extreme clinical vulnerability. Over 1,661,879 people have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination and 92,550 have received their second dose. We are now working on vaccinating priority group 6.

The Scottish Government is continuing to engage with the Joint committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on the issue of priority vaccines for terminally ill patients and those at risk of being immunosuppressed. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport has written to the JCVI on this matter, and the response provided by JCVI advised that for the first phase of the COVID-19 mass vaccination programme, priority should be given to protecting those most at risk of dying from COVID-19.

The order of priority is based on estimates of the risk of dying from COVID-19, because age is so strongly associated with COVID-19 mortality, modelling indicates that offering the vaccine to older age groups first is the optimal strategy. The priority order for phase 1 reflects the estimated number of persons that need to be vaccinated to save one life, with every life considered precious and of equal value; no additional value being placed on anticipated life expectancy, whether long or short.

It is also important to reflect that people can be described as being terminally ill due to a very wide variety of medical circumstances or clinical conditions. Many individuals who are clinically extremely vulnerable or nearing the end of life will have some degree of immunosuppression or be immunocompromised and may not respond as well to the COVID-19 vaccine as we would hope.

JCVI have confirmed that their position is that terminally ill patients will be vaccinated in either group 4 or 6. Individuals who are defined as clinically extremely vulnerable will have been vaccinated as part of group 4.

161,101 people who are clinically extremely vulnerable have now received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of 4 March 2021. This represents around 90% of the shielding list.

JCVI priority group 4 includes all those 70 years of age and over, and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals. Group 6 includes all individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality. Group 6 also includes unpaid carers, including all adult carers and young carers aged 16 to 18.

Priority groups 4 and 6 are not completely distinct groups as such. In practice, delivery to these groups will be a matter of weeks apart. A person can therefore move in and out of these two groups with time rather than being static in one group.

We will continue to work with the JCVI to monitor vaccine delivery.