Officers should be ‘prioritised’ for covid jab, says Police Federation boss
Officers should be “prioritised” for the covid jab according to the general secretary of the North Wales Police Federation.
Mark Jones said officers face a greater risk of contracting the deadly virus due to the public facing nature of their jobs, and that some of his colleagues had even been spat at by offenders.
Sgt Jones said that there were a lot of officers who were off sick and having to self-isolate and that this was making it more difficult to attend 999 calls.
But he insisted that he wasn’t asking for officers to receive the vaccination ahead of NHS staff and the most vulnerable people in society.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “We want to make it really clear we’re not suggesting in any way shape or form that police officers should be prioritised ahead of the very most vulnerable in our communities, and that also stands for our incredible frontline NHS and care workers.
“But there’s three very simple reasons for us in the federation why we think our colleagues should be prioritised.
“Our colleagues cannot mitigate the risk of being exposed to coronavirus while still on duty, and even more so we’re hearing of colleagues who have disgustingly been spat at and coughed on.
“They’re really quite vulnerable, particularly when there’s new variants of the virus, and our colleagues are not immune from this virus. Behind the uniform there really is a human being.
“The second reason is resilience. We’ve got colleagues who are off work with the virus, that are off work sick, that are off work self-isolating and currently the absence rate around the country is around 15 per cent for policing.
“If there’s no police officers available then who is going to attend that 999 call and who’s going to be responsible? It’s really important that the vaccination process is there for police officers.”
‘Role’
He added: “By virtue of what police do, the nature of the role is that we go to many different homes and different locations in the community.
“There’s also a risk that they can also carry the virus with no symptoms and unknowingly pass it on to others.
“Very sadly part of our role is we go into homes where there has been a sudden death in relation to covid on behalf of the coroner.
“We’ll also go into homes when there’s calls for help from members of the public and when covid is present within the household.
“We’re going to a lot of incidents, as we do on a daily basis, particularly those with domestic violence cases.
“Again, there’s a really high risk that my colleagues go into these homes with the coronavirus.”
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.