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Prisoners could jump the queue for coronavirus vaccinations when the next phase of the rollout begins, it emerged last night.
A potential loophole for criminals was revealed as officials prepare to publish their recommendations on the jab priority list for adults aged under 50.
It is understood local areas will have the flexibility to vaccinate prisoners in large groups if necessary to make the exercise easier while the wider population is likely to receive jabs according to age.
This is not a formal recommendation by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which draws up the suggested priority order for jabs.
© Provided by Daily MailPrisoners could jump the queue for coronavirus vaccinations when the next phase of the rollout begins. A potential loophole for criminals was revealed as officials prepare to publish their recommendations on the jab priority list for adults aged under 50. (Above, file image of a member of prison staff)
© Provided by Daily MailIt is understood local areas will have the flexibility to vaccinate prisoners in large groups if necessary to make the exercise easier while the wider population is likely to receive jabs according to age. (Pictured, members of the public queue to receive their coronavirus vaccine at Basingstoke Fire Station, in Hampshire)
But a Government source said it was an informal guideline. However, there was confusion last night over the exact policy which will be adopted after health officials insisted prisoners will receive jabs by age groups.
Any guidance that an entire prison population can be jabbed at the same time opens up the possibility that inmates will be vaccinated before the general public.
A Department of Health spokesman said: 'Prisoners will not be prioritised for vaccination. They are being vaccinated in line with the priority groups set out by the independent JCVI - no faster and no further than the general public.
'The rollout of vaccines in prisons will continue to follow this independent advice.'
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Meanwhile, JCVI deputy chairman Professor Anthony Harnden said that giving workers such as teachers and police priority in the vaccination order would slow down the rollout.
There have been growing calls for people at greater risk of catching the virus, including teachers, police, shop workers and taxi drivers, to be placed at the top of the queue when vaccines are rolled out to under-50s.
© Provided by Daily MailAny guidance that an entire prison population can be jabbed at the same time opens up the possibility that inmates will be vaccinated before the general public. (Above, a member of the public is given a Covid jab in the back of a taxi in a pop-up vaccination site in Holland Park, west London)
But Professor Harnden told the Commons science and technology committee yesterday: 'One of the key reasons that this programme has been so successful is because it has been simple, it's been deliverable and it's been rolled out very quickly and people understand it.
'If you start picking out certain groups, it will make it more complicated. The risk of doing that is slowing the programme down.'
The JCVI was responsible for drawing up the original list of nine priority groups, which includes the most clinically vulnerable and all over-50s, who should be vaccinated by the end of April.
It has now written up its recommendations for the vaccination order in under-50s, which have been submitted to ministers.
The Department of Health said: 'We are following advice from the independent JCVI to vaccinate the most vulnerable people first.'
However, last night it emerged that healthy people in their 20s have already had jabs in some parts of the country in a vaccine 'postcode lottery'.
Some GPs are offering it to people outside the high-risk priority groups because they have run out of eligible patients who want it.
The NHS says only people older than 64 or in the top six groups --such as NHS staff, care home residents and the clinically vulnerable - should currently be vaccinated.
But family doctors in areas with high vaccine 'hesitancy' have started to invite younger patients for the jab to avoid wasting precious supplies.
Ellie, 28, of Balham, south London, told the i newspaper she was called to get the vaccine this month.
She said: 'I called my GP and asked if I should definitely come for the vaccine, saying it didn't seem right that I was getting it. They just said "It's your lucky day - make sure you turn up".'
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