Over-40s could get Covid jabs within weeks

Vaccine age bands to be widened in next phase

PEOPLE as young as 40 could be offered a Covid jab within a few weeks, the Mail can reveal.

UK Government advisers are expected to recommend that the next phase of the vaccine rollout continues on the basis of age – but with wider brackets than before.

This means that those aged 40 to 49 are likely to be invited to get the jab once the NHS has finished giving a first dose to people in the top nine priority groups. It emerged this week that this target could now be hit as soon as March 24 if the daily average is maintained.

This means the over-40s could be invited for a jab in less than five weeks’ time.

It would represent a huge boost for Britain’s vaccine programme and could add to the pressure for ministers to ease the lockdown sooner.

The priority list for the rollout is determined by the Government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) which met yesterday to draft its recommendations for the next phase.

These are expected to be signed off by members today before being sent to ministers to approve at the start of next week. The successful rollout of Covid jabs could be crucial to how quickly lockdown lifts.

The first 15 million people to receive the jab were prioritised by five-year age bands, as well as frontline health and social care workers, with debate about who should be prioritised next.

Many argue that key workers – such as those in public services, police or teachers – should be offered a vaccine first. It has also been suggested that ethnic minorities be prioritised after data from the first wave of the pandemic suggested that ethnic minorities were up to twice as likely to die from Covid.

Yesterday, members of the JCVI held a four-hour video call to determine their next phase recommendations.

It is understood that they rejected the idea of prioritising key workers or ethnic minorities in favour of a simple age-based approach.

The experts are said to be satisfied that those at highest risk within these groups are already accounted for as a result of being ‘clinically vulnerable’ or ‘over 50’.

However, they are believed to have suggested that in the next phase, the age brackets are widened from five years to ten years. This is because the difference in death risk between a 30 and 39-year-old is much less than that between a 70 and 79-year-old.

It is anticipated that key workers and ethnic minorities aged 40 to 49 will be encouraged to get the vaccine at the earliest opportunity.

Ministers may choose to follow the advice, which is guided by the principle of minimising deaths, or make changes.

They may take a ‘political decision’ to prioritise teachers, police officers and other frontline workers, and other medical conditions could be added to the list.

A JCVI source said: ‘There has been an in-depth discussion about all of the possible options but there is now a position that I think everyone can get behind.’

The NHS has administered 16,996,806 Covid jabs in the UK, of which 16,423,082 are first doses.

All 32million people in the top nine priority groups will have received a first dose by March 24 if the current daily average of 435,000 daily jabs is maintained.

‘All options have been discussed’