Covid-19 vaccination programme (FOI)

​Request  

A

Please define who the senior operational leads are via job or pay grade and department, who have received vaccines and when they received vaccines?

For completeness, I have added the Twitter thread: 

Twitter thread.

The final comment from the Communications team says “If at the end of any batch, there is a chance of waste, then a vaccine is administered according to the principles of vulnerability to Covid”. Please could you share the protocol that explains who gets to receive these “spare” vaccines? The initial comment from “Binky” suggests that Senior Civil Servants who do not feature on the attached prioritisation list were seen “loitering” around at Fort Regent. Another poster later on suggests they have a photograph of a senior non medical civil servant receiving a vaccine at the end of one of the days, at Fort Regent. Please provide details of the Ministerial decision, emails or communications showing where it was agreed that Senior Civil Servants should receive vaccines in this manner.

B

Would the Government confirm that the order of priority as stated on the gov.je website Jersey Covid-19 vaccine appointments (gov.je) accessed 30 December 2020 has been strictly adhered to.

C

As at 31 December have vaccination times been offered to all known residents aged over 80? 4. As at 31 December have vaccinations been given to any medical staff, who are not, as defined above in the order of priority, working in care, and if so how many? 5. As at 31st December have any vaccinations been given to any other civil servants (or any form of interim or government contractor) and if so, how many and why?

Response

A

Alongside vaccinating our elderly and most vulnerable Islanders, we are vaccinating Islanders working in operational and frontline roles. So far, carers in care homes, domestic care workers, funeral workers, staff from Health and Community services, GPs, vaccinators and dentists have been offered vaccines alongside a limited number of operational Government staff in December 2020 who manage the frontline Covid-19 response.

Of the Government staff working on the Covid-19 response, the decision on who to vaccinate in this limited list was based on clinical consideration and kept confidential in order to maintain its integrity and patient confidentiality.

B

Senior civil servants and Ministers have not been vaccinated, except for those sitting in either the vulnerable category or in the relevant age brackets; they have been vaccinated along with the rest of their respective cohorts. There are no plans to vaccinate the Council of Ministers or civil servants, other than when they are entitled to through their age or risk cohort or if they are conducting Covid-19 response services. We have been vaccinating upon priority groups as stipulated by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and our weekly statistics demonstrate our performance through the priority groups.

COVID-19 - SARS-CoV-2

C

The Government launched the second tier of its vaccination programme for Islanders aged 80 and over, with appointments available from 13 January 2021. Islanders over the age of 80 years, who live with someone over the age of 75, were also invited to book their appointments through the Coronavirus Helpline to receive their vaccines at the same time.

Appointments for Frontline Health and Social Care workers were opened in December and further appointments opened in January alongside vaccinating our elderly and most vulnerable islanders, The objective of occupational immunisation of health and social care staff is to protect workers at high risk of exposure who provide care to vulnerable individuals. Although evidence is still emerging on whether vaccination leads to a reduction in transmission, a small effect may have major additional benefit for staff who could expose multiple vulnerable patients and other staff members.

Frontline healthcare staff has included the following groups: Staff involved in direct patient care This includes staff who have frequent face-to-face clinical contact with patients and who are directly involved in patient care in either secondary or primary care / community settings. This includes doctors, dentists, midwives and nurses, paramedics and ambulance staff, pharmacists, optometrists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and radiographers It should also include those working in independent, voluntary and non-standard healthcare settings such as hospices, and community-based mental health or addiction services.

Non-clinical staff in secondary or primary care / community healthcare settings: This includes non-clinical ancillary staff who may have social contact with patients but are not directly involved in patient care. This group includes receptionists, ward clerks, porters and cleaners. Laboratory and pathology staff Hospital-based laboratory and mortuary staff who frequently handle SARS-CoV-2 or collect or handle potentially infected specimens, including respiratory, gastrointestinal and blood specimens should be eligible as they may also have social contact with patients. This may also include cleaners, porters, secretaries and receptionists in laboratories.

Frontline funeral operatives and mortuary technicians /  embalmers are both at risk of exposure and likely to spend a considerable amount of time in care homes and hospital settings where they may also expose multiple patients. Staff working in non-hospital-based laboratories and those academic or commercial research laboratories who handle clinical specimens or potentially infected samples will be able to use effective protective equipment in their work and should be at low risk of exposure.

Government staff managing the frontline Covid-19 response, vaccination programme, temporary staff, students, trainees and volunteers who are working with patients.

Article applied:

Article 25 Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

(3) In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.