Occupations such as taxi and bus driving will not be prioritised for COVID-19 vaccination

Image credit: Unsplash-Matheus Bardemaker

The Parliamentary Under-secretary for Health and Social Care, Nadhim Zahawi, has said that those who work in sectors such as taxi, bus and train (i.e. the transport industry), will not be prioritised for a COVID-19 vaccination based on their occupation alone.

Labour MP for Easington, Grahame Morris, asked Zahawi if he was planning to prioritise vaccination for transport industry workers, during a parliamentary discussion.

In reply, Zahawi said: "For Phase 2 of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, JCVI published its interim advice on 26 February, setting out the most effective way to minimise hospitalisation and deaths is to continue to prioritise people by age, rather than occupation.

"This is because age is assessed to be the strongest factor linked to mortality, morbidity and hospitalisations, and because the speed of delivery is crucial as we provide more people with protection from COVID-19."

He went on to add that if bus, train or taxi drivers are captured in Phase 1 or 2 due to their age or clinical need, they will be vaccinated accordingly, but concluded that there are currently "no plans to vaccinate by occupation".

In December, London’s biggest taxi driver association, the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association (LTDA), called on Government to include cabbies as one of the first groups to receive any vaccine.

Men working as taxi drivers and chauffeurs were shown to be one of the most at risk in an occupational study based around the death rates of COVID-19.

In the summer, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) analysed all 4,761 deaths involving the coronavirus in the working age population, those aged 20 to 64 years, in England and Wales registered between 9 March and 25 May. Of those deaths, 134 were taxi drivers or chauffeurs.

Nearly two-thirds of these deaths (3,122) were among men. Because of the higher number of deaths among men, 17 specific occupations were found to have raised rates of death involving COVID-19, some of which included:

• Taxi drivers and chauffeurs (65.3 deaths per 100,000; 134 deaths),

• Bus and coach drivers (44.2 deaths per 100,000; 53 deaths),

• Chefs (56.8 deaths per 100,000; 49 deaths),

• Sales and retail assistants (34.2 deaths per 100,000; 43 deaths).

Of the 17 specific occupations among men in England and Wales found to have higher rates of death involving COVID-19, data shows that 11 of these have statistically significantly higher proportions of workers from Black and Asian ethnic backgrounds (BAME); for women, data shows that two of the four specific occupations with elevated rates have statistically significantly higher proportions of workers from BAME backgrounds.