Question reference: S5W-34975
- Asked by: Joan McAlpine, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 4 February 2021
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Current status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 8 March 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether its shielding list includes unpaid carers who are recorded on the Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation (JCVI) clinically extremely vulnerable list.
Answer
People on the shielding list meet the criteria of the clinically extremely vulnerable as defined in group 4 of the Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation (JCVI). People on the shielding list are individuals who have a condition that puts them at the highest clinical risk of severe illness or mortality from COVID-19. These conditions have been identified by the Chief Medical Officers across the UK and can be found here .
The shielding list does not exclude any category of people, including unpaid carers. Therefore, a number of unpaid carers may fall into this priority group based on their health.
Throughout the pandemic, the Scottish Government has been clear that those who meet the criteria of the clinically vulnerable should be shielding and that any decisions and measures to protect the health of those shielding should be a priority.