The residents of the care home and the carers are going to be the first to get the new coronavirus or COVID-19 vaccine, the first in the world to get cleared for clinical use, as per reports. The Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation (JCVI) updated the list of priorities today after the vaccine got approved by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA).
First in the line are going to be the care home residents and carers followed by people more than 80 and frontline health and care workers. Next are going to be the people more than 75 years of age followed by the ones over 70 and the extremely clinically vulnerable.
COVID-19 Vaccine in UK
People who are in the 65s are going to be the next, with the people having underlying health conditions coming after that. The JCVI stated that there is not yet safety data for how the vaccine is going to affect pregnant women. They also mentioned that people under 16 must only get it if they are vulnerable.
"There are very limited data on vaccination in adolescents, with no data on vaccination in younger children, at this time. The Committee advises that only those children at very high risk of exposure and serious outcomes, such as older children with severe neuro-disabilities that require residential care, should be offered vaccination," they said as reported by the Mirror.
The first vaccine got approved for clinical use by regulators making the UK the first nation in the world with a clinically approved vaccine ready to roll out. "Help is on its way. We can now see the way out. We can see that by the spring we're going to be through this. We're going to be through this," Health Secretary Matt Hancock stated.
The Health Secretary also mentioned, "Yes. We will have it ready for early next week. This is fantastic news. The MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority), the fiercely independent regulator, has clinically authorized the vaccine for rollout. The NHS stands ready to make that to happen." The PM is going to give further detail and take questions in the televised briefing from Downing Street at 5 pm.
List of Priority Groups for New Vaccine:
The JCVI stated that taken together, these groups represent around 99 percent of the preventable deaths from coronavirus. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson stated, "The Government has today accepted the recommendation from the independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to approve Pfizer/BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine for use."
"This follows months of rigorous clinical trials and a thorough analysis of the data by experts at the MHRA who have concluded that the vaccine has met its strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness," the spokesperson added.
The chief medical officer of England, Professor Chris Whitty stated that despite the news of the vaccine it will be important not to lower the guard. "The independent regulator authorized the first vaccine for use against Covid-19. This is excellent news and a step towards normality. It will take until spring until the vulnerable population who wish to are fully vaccinated. We can't lower our guard yet."
