Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about prioritisation of the COVID-19 vaccine.

More than 100,000 people have died with COVID-19 in the UK. It is a national tragedy and a terrible reminder of all that we have lost as a country. I sympathise profoundly with anyone who has lost a loved one, a friend, a neighbour, or a colleague.

To all those that are mourning, we must promise to learn the lessons of what went wrong and build a more resilient country. But for now, we must remember those that we have lost and be vigilant in the national effort to stay at home, protect our health service and vaccinate Britain.

The NHS deserves huge congratulations for its impressive and speedy rollout of vaccines to those in the top priority groups. I pay tribute to all those involved in the effort.

The first phase of the vaccine rollout is rightly focused on reducing deaths and hospitalisations. This is based on scientific evidence from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), an independent expert advisory committee.

The Government said it will set out plans for phase two in due course.

I believe we must go further and faster. Ministers should accelerate the rollout and - once those at highest risk of severe illness are protected - ensure key workers in critical professions are included in the first phase.

We cannot afford to slow our vaccination efforts now. The new COVID-19 variants remind us that we need to work harder to break the chains of transmission and get Britain vaccinated. Not only will vaccine acceleration save lives, it will help us to carefully and responsibly lift restrictions and reopen our economy.

Thank you once again for contacting me about this important issue.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP