Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of giving frontline NHS staff priority access to the second dose of the covid-19 vaccination.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has identified that frontline health and social care workers should be in prioritised for vaccination in phase one of the programme, as these staff are at high risk of acquiring COVID-19 infection and transmitting that infection to multiple persons who are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 as well as to other staff in a healthcare environment. The JCVI, based on a review of current data, concluded that the first dose of vaccine provides substantial protection within two to three weeks of vaccination from severe COVID-19 disease. Whilst the second dose is important to sustain the protection and extend its duration, most of the initial protection from clinical disease is after the first dose of the vaccine.

The National Health Service has offered vaccination to everybody in cohorts one to nine, including health and social care workers and will be delivering all second doses within 12 weeks. As of 4 April 2021, over half of NHS trust healthcare workers in the NHS Electronic Staff Record have now received the second dose of their vaccine. The data can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-vaccinations/