Doctors have been advised to take into account the ethnicity of patients when deciding who to first vaccinate against coronavirus.
From Tuesday some GPs across the UK will begin giving the Pfizer/BioNTech jab to patients.
Under the government’s rollout plan for the vaccine, those 80 years of age and over are first in line for the vaccine.
Each GP site will receive 975 vaccines in their initial delivery.
In a letter sent by NHS England on Monday, doctors were advised how to prioritise patients if there were more than 975 over people 80 years old eligible to be vaccinated.
“You could consider the following: i. Age 80 or over; ii. Co-morbidities; iii. Ethnicity,” it said.
People of Black and Asian ethnicities are up to twice as likely to be infected with Covid-19, compared to white individuals, according to a recent study.
The analysis by medical journal The Lancet in November found the risk of being admitted to intensive care after catching coronavirus may also be twice as high with Asian heritage when compared to those from white ethnicities.
The vaccine priority list drawn up by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and accepted by the government focuses on age, as the older people are the more vulnerable they are to the disease.
It was criticised for making no mention of ethnicity despite the unequal risk to people from different ethnic backgrounds.
But the NHS England letter means GPs can ensure vulnerable ethnic groups can be prioritised after all.
Here is the vaccine priority list:
Older adults resident in a care home and care home workers
All those 80 years of age and over, plus frontline health and social care workers
All those 75 years of age and over
All those 70 years of age and over
All those 65 years of age and over
All Individuals aged 16 to 64 with underlying health conditions.
All those 60 years of age and over
All those 55 years of age and over
All those 50 years of age and over
The rest of the population (priority to be determined)
The vaccine has been administered in hospitals first. GPs will receive it next week and it will be deployed in care homes by Christmas.
Health secretary Hancock told MPs this week that, once vaccines other than Pfizer’s were available – such as the AstraZeneca/Oxford jab – then vaccination centres in larger venues like sports stadiums and conference halls would be opened in the new year.