Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to protect groups for whom the COVID-19 vaccine is less effective, and (2) to communicate their remaining risk to the general public.

The Government continues to monitor vaccine efficacy amongst different clinical groups, including studies such as OCTAVE, looking at COVID-19 in people with and without cancer and SOAP, measuring vaccine efficacy in blood cancer patients.

We have been working on finding treatments to reduce mortality, hospitalisations and disease severity. Immunocompromised individuals are a priority cohort for the research treatments such as monoclonal antibody therapies, antivirals, and repurposed compounds.

Although the shielding advice was paused on 1 April, the clinically extremely vulnerable are advised to continue to take extra precautions to keep themselves safe, particularly when meeting with people from outside their household. All clinically extremely vulnerable people will have been offered a COVID-19 vaccination and are strongly encouraged to take up their second dose when it is offered.

If an individual has concerns about the impacts of COVID-19 on their own health condition then they should speak to their general practitioner or specialist clinician.