Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the general population is required to take up a covid-19 vaccination to ensure the effectiveness of that vaccination programme.
It has not yet been determined what proportion of the general population is required to take up a COVID-19 vaccination.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised that the first priorities for any COVID-19 vaccination programme should be the prevention of COVID-19 mortality and the protection of health and social care staff and systems. The JCVI recently published advice to facilitate the development of policy on COVID-19 vaccination in the United Kingdom with the priority list for COVID-19 vaccination. It is estimated that taken together, these groups represent around 99% of preventable mortality from COVID-19.
As the first phase of the programme is rolled out in the UK, additional data will become available on the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and whether they can prevent infection and onward transmission in the population.