Coronavirus: Vaccination

(asked on 14th April 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to changes in guidance about shielding during the COVID-19 pandemic, what plans they have to ensure that immunosuppressed clinically extremely vulnerable people are prioritised for a second dose of a COVID-19 vaccination; and what steps they are taking to ensure that such people are supported prior to any such vaccination.


Answered by
Lord Bethell Portrait
Lord Bethell
This question was answered on 27th April 2021

Immunosuppressed people who are clinically extremely vulnerable are included in priority group four of phase one of the vaccination programme. Everyone who receives a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine should be offered a second dose of the same vaccine within 12 weeks of the first dose. Clinicians can advise their patients based on their knowledge and understanding of their immune status and likely immune response to vaccination and should also consider the risk from COVID-19 and the patient’s likelihood of exposure.

Until further information becomes available vaccinated patients with immunosuppression should continue to follow advice to reduce the chance of exposure. This advice applies whether or not the individual has had one or two vaccine doses as we do not yet have evidence of response in immunosuppressed individuals. Although shielding has been paused from 1 April, immunosuppressed clinically extremely vulnerable people are still advised to take extra steps to keep themselves safe and follow the rules and guidance that are in place for the wider population.

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