Cardiff Council leader ‘We will do our best to minimise’ staff jumping vaccine queue

CARDIFF council leader Huw Thomas has said “certain safeguards” are in place to avoid staff jumping the vaccine queue.

An anonymous council worker recently claimed the vaccine was being given to managers working from home and staff working overtime, rather than the strict priority rules. The council denied the claims.

But the question was raised again during a full council meeting on Thursday, January 28, when Cllr Thomas described vaccine queue-jumping as “a live issue”.

Cllr Emma Sandrey asked the council leader for reassurance that “no council worker is receiving the vaccine before it’s appropriate for them to do so”.

Cllr Thomas said: “This is a very live issue. I have certainly indicated to the chief executive that we must be very clear in terms of staff expectation.

“We are seeing examples from elsewhere in the country of things falling through the net. We will do our best to avoid that or minimise that.”

According to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, vaccines should be given first to all care home residents and staff, frontline health and social care staff, everyone aged over 70, and everyone who is clinically extremely vulnerable.

The worker alleged that managers at Cardiff council were receiving the vaccine instead, and the vaccine was being used to encourage some staff to work overtime. Cardiff council denied the claims as “nonsense”.

Cllr Sandrey, writing on Twitter, said she was “not really reassured by the answer” from the council leader. She added his response was in “stark contrast to what they told the press”.

Reports elsewhere in the UK of council workers jumping the queue to get vaccines emerged recently in Denbighshire, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.