Guernsey hopes to move away from UK vaccine priorities

But Guernsey could be set to move in a different direction.

In a press conference this morning, JCVI chairman Professor Wei Shen Lim said they had based their decision on reducing hospitalisations and severe illness.

'It is clear that age remains a dominant factor,' he said.

'It is still one of the most important causes for severe disease, even in those aged 50 years and below.'

Guernsey has until now followed the JCVI guidance as a condition of getting vaccines from the UK.

But today Civil Contingencies Authority chairman Peter Ferbrache said Guernsey was now looking to break that deal and instead prioritise people based on their jobs.

It was noted that the small scale of vaccinations in Guernsey would make this easier than in the UK.

Professor Lim said that age was an easy way to structure UK vaccine distribution and speed was vitally important.

This means vaccines in phase two will be given first to people aged 49 to 40, then those 39 to 30 and lastly 29 to 18 in the UK.

There had been hopes that certain groups would get prioritised for vaccination, such as teachers, shop workers or police officers.

'There are occupations where risk of exposure to the virus might be higher,' Professor Lim said.

But he said that within those jobs, older people were still more at risk.

He added that an occupation-based vaccine programme had never been tested before in the UK, so switching to that would be more complicated and could introduce more delays.

'We want as many people as possible to benefit from the protection that is offered by the Covid-19 vaccine,' Professor Lim said.

Phase one was for adults 50 and above, as well as people with health risks and healthcare workers and is already taking place.