Almost two million are added to shielding category
AROUND 1.7 million more people will be added to the shielding list in England after experts identified additional adults at serious risk of Covid-19, health officials confirmed yesterday.
Letters will be arriving imminently telling people they should be in the shielding group.
Those newly identified as being at higher risk will get priority access for vaccines if they have not yet received their jab, officials confirmed. This means around 800,000 people will be pushed up the vaccine priority list.
The shielding list was expanded after scientists developed a new tool which assesses whether someone is at risk of severe disease or death.
The tool looks at multiple factors, including age, ethnicity, body mass index (BMI), other health conditions and also postcodes, which are indicative of levels of deprivation. The predictive risk model was developed by researchers led by scientists at Oxford University.
Around 2.2 million people are currently on the list in England, many of whom were identified for a single reason, such as specific cancers, people on immunosuppression drugs, or those with severe respiratory conditions. The additional 1.7 million will bring the number on the list to almost four million. Some will have already been offered a Covid-19 jab, officials said, but those who have not will be able to get their vaccines “as quickly as possible”.
The Department of Health and Social Care said the group includes more than 800,000 adults aged between 19 and 69 who will now be prioritised for a vaccination. The other 900,000 are over 70 and will have already been offered their jab.
Officials will be advising that shielding continues until March 31, said Dr Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer for England. She said the group, if they join the list, will receive the additional support available to those deemed to be clinically extremely vulnerable, including medicine deliveries, priority slots for supermarkets and statutory sick pay.
Dr Harries said: “We have a new, evidence-based, data-driven, predictive risk model which allows us to identify adults with multiple risk factors that make them more vulnerable to Covid-19. We can now identify additional people and help protect them now and in the future.
“All of these people who are identified for the first time are those who have not had an individual clinical condition that we have previously been able to identify through the clinically extremely vulnerable group, but they are people who have multiple personal risk factors and underlying health conditions which move them into a higher risk group.”
Dr Harries added that the approach was “risk averse” – an over-estimate of risk – to “protect as many people as possible”.