Family and friends of elderly patients are still permitted to take them to their Covid vaccine appointment under new tier 4 rules, the Department of Health and Social Care has confirmed.
Those over the age of 80 years invited to have the new Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine can still be driven by relatives or friends under the exemption of ‘providing care for the vulnerable’.
Announcing the new tier 4 restrictions for London and much of the South East and East of England on Saturday 19 December, prime minister Boris Johnson said 350,000 people had already been vaccinated.
Vaccination is ongoing and GP Covid vaccinations are set to be rolled out more widely to care homes in England from this week, NHS England has said.
Under the tier 4 restrictions, which were put in place in response to a variant strain of coronavirus which seems to spread more easily, households are not allowed to mix, non-essential shops, hairdressers, and leisure and entertainment venues must close and people are being advised to stay at home.
Shielding advice has been reintroduced for clinically extremely vulnerable groups living in those areas but reiterates the importance of continuing to engage with the NHS.
A DHSC spokesperson said that taking a friend or relative aged over 80 to a vaccine appointment was exemption under the new rules because it was to ‘care for vulnerable people, to provide emergency assistance’.
