Covid vaccine: Police officers 'must be on priority list'

Police officers should be given priority on the vaccination list, a North Wales Police Federation representative has said.

Insp Trystan Bevan said police officers needed protection as they dealt with Covid rule-breakers.

A Senedd petition calling for police officers to receive priority has been signed more than 10,850 times.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) said it was vaccinating in line with the national priority list.

Insp Bevan, who is a North Wales Police Federation representative, said officers should be vaccinated not only for their own safety but that of the community.

It comes after the Welsh Government missed the target to vaccinate 70% of people over the age of 80 by last weekend, blaming the ice and snow.

"We as police officers need to be considered in relation to this vaccine. We need to be protected, same as everybody else," said Insp Bevan.

"At the end of the day we are the people who are going to see people who are breaking these rules, we are the ones who enforce the laws.

"We also need some protection as well, not just for us - for our families, plus the community, because we are dealing with everybody in society in the community and we need to protect them as well."

It is currently unknown if the vaccines have an effect on transmission.

Insp Bevan added he was contacted daily by colleagues concerned about when police would be eligible for the vaccine.

A Senedd petition calling for police officers to receive priority was signed more than 10,850 times.

"We are trying to bring it to the attention of the AMs the MPs in our area," he said.

"We're trying to explain that we need to be pushed up that list."

He said officers put others at risk "going to 20 people in a day, checking if they are breaching Covid [rules] when possibly we may be carrying it, not being symptomatic".

Meanwhile, there are calls for school staff to be vaccinated so pupils can return to the classroom.

A Senedd petition to prioritise teachers, school and childcare staff has attracted more than 16,200 signatures.

Darren Booth-Taylor, headteacher at Ysgol Twm O'r Nant in Denbigh, said vaccinating teachers would reduce anxiety in school.

"If the staff are vaccinated, that creates less anxious staff which transcends to happier children. So it is a win-win situation by vaccinating all members of staff within schools.

"Schools would be safer places wouldn't they if the vaccine was rolled out to school staff? Which means that parents would feel more confident and more happy, more at ease to allow children to return to schools."

Health professionals in north Wales told BBC Wales of their frustrations about who was being prioritised for a coronavirus jab.

Some front-line NHS workers are worried that staff working from home are being vaccinated before others in need.

But a healthcare worker, who wished to remain anonymous, said local authority workers who had been based at home since March have received the vaccine.

"I feel it's very unfair and very frustrating for us who are working on the front-line and have been working on the front-line since the beginning of the Covid pandemic and have been seeing clients face to face throughout," she said.

"And then you have some local authority staff from Gwynedd council that have been working from home since day one and have no client face-to-face contact that have had the vaccine before some of the elderly population."

Gwynedd council said it had provided details of staff who fell within the priority categories for vaccination.

"Like any other employment issue, if a member of staff has a question or concern about the vaccination programme, there is a procedure in place that enables them to raise such issues in confidence," a spokesman said.

Sue Green, of BCUHB, said: "We appreciate the anxiety felt by our staff and the desire to be vaccinated as soon as possible.

"We have seen a recent significant increase in the supply of vaccines that we have received and administered and are on target for the national key milestones."