Updated shielding list, criteria and Covid rules explained

Letters will be arriving imminently telling people they should be in the expanded shielding group.

Some people have already been offered a Covid jab, but the around 800,000 who have not will be bumped up the vaccine priority list.

Why has the shielding list changed?

The shielding list and criteria for warning people to stay away from others was updated after scientists at Oxford University developed a new tool.

The tool assesses whether someone is at risk of severe disease or death if they were to catch coronavirus.

Who will be added to the updated shielding list?

The Oxford University 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.

Medical records have been searched to identify high risk patients, based on their combined risk factors.

You will only know for sure you're being asked to shield when official letters arrive telling you to do so.

But the new criteria is much broader, so you could be asked to take extra measures to protect yourself for a variety of expanded reasons.

In general though, according to the NHS website, people have only been added to the larger shielding list if a risk assessment based on medical records and other data found they were vulnerable to the virus.

What the NHS website does reveal is the groups of people who have NOT been risk assessed by the new tool.

These include those under 19 years of age, people already told by a medic that they are not at greater risk, or people already on the shielding list, before the changes.

Around 2.2 million people are currently on the list in England.

Groups of people at high risk from Covid-19

According to the NHS, patients deemed to be at high risk of developing complications from COVID-19 include:

• solid organ transplant recipients
• people with severe respiratory conditions including all cystic fibrosis, severe asthma and severe chronic obstructive pulmonary (COPD)
• people with rare diseases and inborn errors of metabolism that significantly increase the risk of infections (such as Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), homozygous sickle cell)
• people on immunosuppression therapies sufficient to significantly increase risk of infection
• people who have problems with their spleen, for example have had a splenectomy
• adults with Down’s syndrome
• adults on dialysis with kidney impairment (Stage 5 Chronic Kidney Disease)
• women who are pregnant with significant heart disease, congenital or acquired
• people with cancer who are undergoing active chemotherapy
• people with lung cancer who are undergoing radical radiotherapy
• people with cancers of the blood or bone marrow such as leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma who are at any stage of treatment
• people having immunotherapy or other continuing antibody treatments for cancer
• people having other targeted cancer treatments which can affect the immune system, such as protein kinase inhibitors or PARP inhibitors
• people who have had bone marrow or stem cell transplants in the last 6 months, or who are still taking immunosuppression drugs

In February 2021, people identified as being at high risk as a result of the Covid-19 Population Risk Assessment have also been included in the Shielded Patient List.

Children and young people at “high risk” from Covid-19 will continue to be identified based on the guidance published by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH).

Deaths involving Covid-19 in England & Wales. See story HEALTH Coronavirus ONS. Infographic PA Graphics. An editable version of this graphic is available if required. Please contact graphics@pamediagroup.com.

Advice for people who are shielding

The new lockdown rules, which came into force on January 5, mean those who are clinically extremely vulnerable should stay at home as much as possible.

The guidance stresses people can still go outside for exercise or to attend health appointments, but try to keep all contact with others outside of your household to a minimum, and avoid busy areas.

You can still meet with your support bubble, but you cannot meet others you do not live with unless they are part of your support bubble.

Outdoors, you can meet one person from another household for exercise. This is part of the wider national regulations that apply to everyone.

For work, you are strongly advised to work from home, because the risk of exposure to the virus in their area may currently be higher.

If you cannot work from home, then you should not attend work.

High risk children and young people should not attend school or other educational settings.

You are advised not to go to the shops.

Instead, use online shopping if you can, or ask others to collect and deliver shopping for you (friends and family, local volunteers or NHS Volunteer Responders).

Covid-19 patients in hospital in England. See story HEALTH Coronavirus. Infographic PA Graphics. An editable version of this graphic is available if required. Please contact graphics@pamediagroup.com.