Who will get vaccine first as experts advise government on priority groups

The government has released a provisional list of recommended priority groups for the coronavirus vaccine.

In an independent report by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, discussions were held over the potential the deployment of any safe and effective vaccine as soon as they are authorised for use in the UK.

As part of the consultation, the JCVI looked at who would receive priority for a COVID-19 vaccine.

This provisional prioritisation is based on preliminary information on the vaccines in development, and provisional timelines for vaccine availability, and is subject to change.

The committee strongly agreed that a simple age-based programme will likely result in faster delivery and better uptake in those at the highest risk.

Whether health and social care workers should be prioritised above, alongside, or below, persons at highest risk from COVID-19 would depend on the characteristics of the vaccines when they become available and the epidemiology of disease at the time of delivery.

Scientists are working to create a vaccine against Covid-19 (PA)

This interim ranking of priorities is a combination of clinical risk stratification and an age-based approach.

A provisional ranking of prioritisation for persons at-risk is set out below:

1. older adults’ resident in a care home and care home workers
2. all those 80 years of age and over and health and social care workers
3. all those 75 years of age and over
4. all those 70 years of age and over
5. all those 65 years of age and over
6. high-risk adults under 65 years of age
7. moderate-risk adults under 65 years of age
8. all those 60 years of age and over
9. all those 55 years of age and over
10. all those 50 years of age and over
11. rest of the population (priority to be determined)

The prioritisation could change substantially if the first available vaccines were not considered suitable for, or effective in, older adults.

Meanwhile, a Chinese pharmaceutical company has said the coronavirus vaccine it is developing should be ready by early 2021 for distribution worldwide.

Yin Weidong, the chief executive of SinoVac, vowed to apply to the US Food and Drug Administration to sell CoronaVac there if it passes its third and final round of testing in humans.

Mr Yin said he has been given the experimental vaccine.

He said: "At the very beginning, our strategy was designed for China and for Wuhan.

"Soon after that in June and July we adjusted our strategy, that is to face the world.

"Our goal is to provide the vaccine to the world, including the US, EU and others."

Stringent regulations in the US, EU, Japan and Australia have historically blocked the sale of Chinese vaccines but Mr Yin said that could change.