Covid: Age and ethnicity may be priority over job occupation in vaccine rollout, ITV News understands
ITV News understands that age, rather than occupation, is being considered as the main factor in deciding who is prioritised in the next phase of the coronavirus vaccine roll-out.
After the over 50s have been offered a jab - which the government aims to do by the end of April - the age-based approach may continue with consideration being given to ethnicity within each age group.
Government officials had been considering whether key workers, such as supermarket staff, police officers and teachers, could be offered the vaccine after over 50s.
Following the success off the first phase of the vaccine rollout, with all people in groups 1-4 of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JVCI) programme having been offered a vaccine, attention is turning to vaccinating all of the JVCI groups 1-9 - or all over 50s.
The JVCI will next meet on Thursday to discuss who should be prioritsed for the following phase of the vaccine delivery programme, before reporting to government ministers who will review the assessment and decide on the final priority list.
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi told Good Morning Britain on Tuesday the JVCI, which has issued advice on which groups should be prioritised for vaccine, were looking into the matter.
He said: "We've gone back to the JVCI to ask exactly them to look at in the context of serious infection, hospitalisation and death, to look at professions - teachers, police officers, prison wardens, those who work in supermarkets - and see if that should be our focus because they come into much greater contact with people and therefore much greater volume of the virus.
"They will look at all the evidence and will advise us in the coming weeks, and then we will follow thorough with that advice to deliver phase two."
More than 15 million people in the UK have received at least one jab, with the government hoping to vaccinate a further 17 million in groups five to nine by the end of April. These injections will be completed alongside administering some second doses for many in the first four groups.
It comes as around 1.7 million people will soon be advised to shield themselves from Covid-19, and 820,000 of those will be moved up the vaccine priority list.
A new data-driven model, based on coronavirus outcomes from the first wave, has identified hundreds of thousands of people with a combination of conditions which means they are at higher risk than previously thought.
The government's full guidance for shielders can be found here.
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