Question reference: S5W-33758
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
- Date lodged: 3 December 2020
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Current status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 19 March 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government by what date it expects people with cancer to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Answer
Patients with specific types of cancer are included in Group 4 and 6 of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) priority list. To date on 11 of March, 163,111 people who are Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV: 91% of those on the shielding list) have received their first dose. This number includes those that are cancer patients.
The vaccination for Group 6 is currently taking place which will include cancer patients as well. A person can therefore move in and out of these two groups (Group 4 and Group 6) with time, rather than being static in one group, particularly with cancer as the disease may progress with time and their treatment may also change.
The full JCVI priority list is currently:
1. residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
2. all those 80 years of age and over, and frontline health and social care workers
3. all those 75 years of age and over
4. all those 70 years of age and over, and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
5. all those 65 years of age and over
6. all those 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality
7. all those 60 years of age and over
8. all those 55 years of age and over
9. all those 50 years of age and over
Our intention (supplies permitting) is to have offered first doses to everyone on the JCVI priority list by mid-April. Beyond that, again assuming we receive adequate supply, we will aim to have offered first doses to the entire adult population by the end of July, rather than September as previously anticipated. All of our planning across the UK is predicated on supply forecasts from the UK Government.