‘We fully endorse that’: Wales will follow JCVI advice and prioritise jabs for over-40s rather than teachers

Wales will follow the JCVI’s advice and jab over-40s next, Wales’ Chief Medical Officer has said.

It means that pressure from teachers and police officers calling for priority for vaccinations has not been heeded. The first children returned to Wales’ schools on Monday.

Dr Frank Atheron said that they had asked the JCVI to “look carefully” at the issue of prioritising people by profession.

However, he said that prioritising over 40 would cover most of those in the police force and teachers.

“It would slow down the whole process” to go by profession, he said. “And we fully endorse that here in Wales”.

“As I’m sure you will have seen, there have been many calls for people from specific occupations to be prioritised for the next phase of the vaccine roll-out,” Frank Atherton said at the Welsh Government’s press conference.

“The JCVI did consider this. However, it found there wasn’t sufficient evidence to set specific occupations apart from the general population. It also advised that the complexity of delivering this approach would slow down the pace of the vaccination roll-out.

“Today, we have published an update to our national vaccination strategy. This confirms both our intention to follow the advice of the JCVI and also to continue with the fantastic pace and progress of our programme.

“Vaccination is safe, effective and is essential to our route out of lockdown and to a brighter near future. We encourage everyone to take up their offer when it is their turn.”