All adults with learning disabilities prioritised for Covid vaccine after Jo Whiley campaign

At least 150,000 more people with learning disabilities will be prioritised for a Covid vaccine, officials have announced following a campaign by Jo Whiley.

The BBC DJ declared Monday a "seismic day" after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommended that all patients on the GP Learning Disability Register should be called forward.

Until now, only those with severe and profound learning disabilities have been prioritised for a Covid jab.

Ms Whiley, 55, sparked a public outcry after revealing that she had been offered the vaccine while her sister Frances, who has the genetic disorder Cri Du Chat syndrome and learning difficulties, had not.

Last week, the 53-year-old tested positive for Covid in what the Radio 2 presenter described as "the stuff of nightmares".

The JCVI has now conceded that GP systems may not always capture the severity of someone's disability, meaning that some adults more severely affected by learning disabilities may have not been prioritised.

The change means everyone listed on the system as having a learning disability will be included in priority group six, which comprises all individuals aged 16 to 64 with underlying health conditions that puts them at high risk from the virus. Along with people in group five – those 65 and over – they are currently the focus of the vaccine rollout.

Ms Whiley told the BBC: "This is a great day – I am so relieved, I'm so happy for all those people who've been living in fear.

"I'm very grateful to the Government for listening, because it's a very complicated situation and it's very difficult to categorise people according to their disability. It's very, very tricky, and that's become apparent, I think, over the past few months.

"And so this is clear, this encompasses everybody, and all those people who have been feeling very neglected, feeling like they don't matter, that we don't care, now know that we will be protecting them. This is absolutely crucial and I could not be more delighted. This is a massive step forward."

Professor Anthony Harnden, the JCVI deputy chairman, said that across the whole spectrum of learning disabilities the chances of dying from Covid were roughly one and a half times that of the normal population.

He told the science and technology committee: "There has been a lot of controversy in this area and I fully understand that. I would like to implore that any GPs which are immunising people in group six now reach out to those who they know have learning disabilities and prioritise them within group six."

Prof Wei Shen Lim, the Covid-19 chair for the JCVI, said: "The JCVI's advice on Covid-19 vaccine prioritisation was developed with the aim of preventing as many deaths as possible. People who are severely affected by learning disabilities are at higher risk of death from Covid-19.

"As the severity of any disability may not be well recorded in GP systems, JCVI supports the NHS operational plan for anyone on the GP Learning Disability Register to be invited now for vaccination as part of priority group six, and to reach out in the community to identify others also severely affected by a learning disability but who may not yet be registered."