Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether immunosuppressed people will receive the second dose of the covid-19 vaccine within the recommended three week period; and if he will make a statement.

The Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has recommended that as many people on the JCVI priority list as possible should be offered a first vaccine dose as the initial priority. The four United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers agree with the JCVI that at this stage of the pandemic prioritising the first doses of vaccine for as many people as possible on the priority list will protect the greatest number of at-risk people overall in the shortest possible time. This will have the greatest impact on reducing mortality, severe disease and hospitalisations and in protecting the National Health Service and equivalent health services.

For both vaccines, data provided to the Medicines and Healthcare products and Regulatory Agency demonstrates that whilst efficacy is optimised when a second dose is administered, both offer considerable protection after a single dose, in the short term. For both vaccines the second dose completes the course and is likely to be important for longer term protection.