Almost 2 million more people in England will be told to shield

Almost 2 million more people in England will be told to shield from Covid for an extra five weeks.

THE new risk assessment computer model has identified an additional 1.7 million people in England to approximately two million already on the ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ list.

Letters will be sent by the NHS to patients in the coming weeks and allow them to move up their vaccine priority group.

Health professionals and Oxford University researchers have studied data on those hospitalised or who died during the pandemic so far to calculate those in the population at risk.

The new additions are considered vulnerable due to a combination of less serious pathologies and risk elements, and as such will be prioritised for the jab.

The new group will also qualify for free shopping deliveries and statutory sick pay.

To date, the only members of the public advised to shield in England were those deemed to be “clinically extremely vulnerable” by the NHS, such as people with cancers, major kidney or heart disease, patients receiving organ transplants and those with Down’s Syndrome.

People in these groups should have already been offered the first dose.

In England, there are 6.1 million people ‘at risk’ who haven’t been told the shield – people with severe asthma, obesity, diabetes, and liver disease, as well as all people over 70 and pregnant women.

They have however been advised to take extra care and will be sent letters this week.

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