‘Front-line workers must be vaccinated first’

NEW DELHI: Workers essential to sustaining the ongoing response to coronavirus disease; people maintaining core societal functions; and those at greatest risk of severe illness and death and their caregivers should be vaccinated first whenever a vaccine is approved but is still in limited supply, according to a new report released in the US on Wednesday.

The report, written by public health experts led by the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, proposes establishing tiers of high-priority candidates who will receiving a vaccine first.

First responders and those at risk are in tier one, with tier two including those providing noncovid healthcare, people supporting maintenance of important societal functions such as police and fire personnel, transportation and delivery workers, food system workers, teachers, and workers involved in the maintenance of electricity, water, information, finance and fuel infrastructure, among others, those who may not be able to access health care if they become ill, and those working in sectors that raises their risk of infection.

Apart from health and frontline workers, people over the age of 65, and those with chronic diseases, the report recommends protecting workers needed to maintain public safety, such as police and fire personnel. It also recommends vaccinating those who can spread infection, such as workers in high public contact jobs like transportation, grocery shop owners, teachers, and childcare workers, school children and children living with highrisk adults. The report, Interim Framework for Covid-19 Vaccine Allocation and Distribution in the US, can be applied in every country. There are 29 candidate vaccines undergoing human clinical trials, with eight vaccines in late stages of clinical evaluation around the world, according to the latest World Health Organisation Draft Landscape of Covid-19 candidate vaccines.