'Vaccinating in age groups in Phase 2 is quicker than prioritising professions'

Phase 2 of the programme for those aged 18 to 49 will be delivered at the Community Vaccination Centre at Beau Sejour.

Letters will soon be sent to people in the 44-49 age group, with an invitation to book in for their first dose. The vaccination team will then contact subsequent age groups shortly after that.

Consideration has been given to prioritising certain professions, but it was decided that moving quickly through the groups based on age would ensure key staff are vaccinated quicker than if an exercise was carried out to identify all staff in certain sectors, removing those who have already been vaccinated in Phase 1 and inviting those remaining.

This also ensures that the Bailiwick continues to align with the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) which has also decided to continue with age specification for the second phase of the vaccine roll-out.

However, Health & Social Care has agreed that there is a case to prioritise staff who are involved in key activities at the borders who have not already received the vaccine, particularly as the island begins to ease border restrictions.

President of HSC Deputy Al Brouard said the Bailiwick's position to complete Phase 2 of the roll-out by the end of July was hugely positive.

'The decision to continue primarily with an operationally simple, age-based programme will mean we can move through the remaining age groups as quickly as possible and where the supply of vaccine allows.'

There have been calls for some professions, such as teachers and police officers, to be prioritised in Phase 2, but Deputy Brouard said vaccinating these key staff groups would be quicker using the already-defined age groups.

'Thankfully the island is back to the enviable position of having no known Covid cases and the most vulnerable individuals in our community have already been vaccinated,' he said.

More work is being done to further look at whether anyone who works in roles supporting the movement of people at the borders who has not yet received the vaccine should be prioritised during Phase 2.

Invitations should have now been sent to all over-50s, people at moderate risk to the virus, the clinically extremely vulnerable and health and care frontline workers.

• 34,432 doses of the vaccine have been administered in the Bailiwick, according to figures on the gov.gg website today [1 April].