1.7 million more people will be added to the shielding list in England after experts identified additional adults at serious risk of Covid-19, health officials have announced today.

Those newly identified as being at higher risk because of multiple factors, including underlying health conditions, will get priority access for vaccines, officials confirmed.

The list was expanded after scientists developed a new tool which assesses whether someone is at risk of severe disease or death.

The tool looks at multiple factors including age, ethnicity, body mass index (BMI), other health conditions and also postcode, which is indicative of levels of deprivation.

The predictive risk model was developed by researchers led by scientists at Oxford University.

It is thought that around 900,000 of those identified have already received an offer of a vaccination because they were over 70.The remainder are all thought to fall into one of the priority groups that are being invited for vaccination next.

Meanwhile the U.K. has recorded a further 799 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test recorded in the past 24 hours, along with 10,625 more cases.

Yesterday 275,956 people received their first dose of the vaccine.

 

 

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