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Vaccinate rough sleepers before emergency accommodation funding runs out, GLA tells government
The government has a “window of opportunity” to ensure rough sleepers in the capital are vaccinated before emergency accommodation funding runs out in March, London’s deputy mayor for housing has said.
In a letter to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), deputy mayor Tom Copley and Dr Tom Coffey, health policy advisor at City Hall, asked the committee to confirm that London is permitted to prioritise homeless people in its roll-out of the vaccine.
As part of its efforts to protect homeless people during the COVID-19 crisis, the Greater London Authority (GLA) is currently housing more than 800 people in hotels with the help of government funding.
With this funding due to end in March, Mr Copley and Dr Coffey said there is “a window of opportunity” to vaccinate potential rough sleepers before “a significant proportion of this group will be dispersed across London”.
Homeless people have not specifically been included as part of the JCVI’s guidance on vaccine prioritisation.
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The guidance currently prioritises people based on age or whether they are deemed to be ‘clinically vulnerable’, alongside certain professions such as frontline health and care workers.
The GLA estimates that at least a third of rough sleepers are clinically vulnerable to COVID-19 due to underlying health conditions, and said there are also high levels of undiagnosed and untreated chronic disease.
Mr Copley said: “Whilst a significant proportion of this group will be in the clinically vulnerable cohort, whether an individual is in a priority group is yet to be established.
“Given the high vulnerability of this group as a whole, it would make practical sense and be more efficient, particularly in large-scale settings, to provide the vaccine to all those in the setting.”
The JCVI’s guidance currently states that the implementation of the vaccine should involve “flexibility in vaccine deployment at a local level” with attention paid to “mitigating health inequalities”.
Mr Copley has asked the JCVI to clarify that London can use this flexibility to ensure “the window of opportunity presented by emergency accommodation is maximised to protect public health”.
A number of local authorities have already taken the decision to prioritise homeless people in the vaccine roll-out, including Oldham, Redbridge and Liverpool.
Meanwhile homeless charities such as St Mungo’s have been demanding that homeless people be pushed up the queue for the vaccine because of the underlying health conditions of many living on the streets.
A government spokesperson said: “We understand this is a challenging period for many, and the NHS is working hard to vaccinate those most at risk as soon as possible.
“The government has taken unprecedented action to support the most vulnerable people in our society during the pandemic – backed by over £700 million to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping this year alone.
“We are following the advice from independent experts at the JCVI on which groups of people to prioritise for COVID-19 vaccines. Anyone who is homeless and falls into these groups is eligible for the vaccine and we are working closely with partners to ensure they can access it.”
Update: at 09.06am, 01.02.21 This story was updated to include a response from the government
