Chamber and committees

With reference to question S5W-33758: To ask the Scottish Government by what date it expects people with cancer to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, we refer the member to the previous answer:

To save lives, The Scottish Government is following the vaccination priority list published by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation on 2nd December. Individuals with cancer are considered a priority and are due to be vaccinated in cohort 4 in the below priority list where they are considered clinically extremely vulnerable to the severe effects of COVID. 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

Patients with cancer may also be prioritised more quickly for the vaccine depending on their age, and individual circumstances.

Decisions to prioritise one population group over another are not taken lightly, nor are they straightforward. That is why our prioritisation decisions have been, and will continue to be, guided by the independent expert advice from the JCVI.

We are working to get vaccines to everyone as quickly as we can, and hope to have vaccinated all those on the JCVI prioritisation list by the end of spring 2021, vaccine supplies permitting.