Police officers jumped Covid vaccine queue after link meant for NHS staff was shared on WhatsApp

Police officers allegedly jumped the queue to get coronavirus vaccinations after an appointment link meant for NHS staff was shared on Whatsapp.

Up to 100 officers reportedly arrived at a vaccination centre last month after using the online link to register.

Officers on duty then had to go to Millennium Point vaccination centre, in Birmingham, to tell the to leave, The Sun reported. 

The newspaper cited sources saying some officers were vaccinated before they would have been eligible under guidelines prioritising the elderly, NHS workers and the extremely vulnerable. 

There have been repeated calls for key workers including police and teachers to be considered for vaccinations after the most vulnerable have been immunised.  

It is understood the Birmingham officers used the link after one policeman’s relative who works in the NHS was sent one as part of the booking system being used.

This was then widely shared on WhatsApp, sending up to 100 officers to the centre.

A senior police official is then said to have sent a stern email warning officers not to return to the vaccine centre.

A source told The Sun: ‘This was shocking. It was a case of dozens of police officers turning up to a vaccination centre trying to get theirs done.

‘The link went out and spread like wildfire on What’sApp. It was mad.

‘It’s understood police even arrived at the centre to tell people to leave. It was quite a spectacle.’  

However, West Midlands Police insisted the officers thought the invite was genuine.

Chief Superintendent Andy Beard, of West Midlands Police, said some officers and staff had accessed ‘excess’ vaccines through an ‘unauthorised route’.

He highlighted how discussions are ongoing about vaccinating officers after the most vulnerable have been immunised, but added: ‘We’re part of these discussions but until a decision has been made we rightly remain behind the four most at risk categories in the order of priority.’

It comes after news that hundreds of teachers, nursery workers and other school staff were vaccinated against Covid-19 by mistake. 

At least three major hospital groups in southern England mistakenly vaccinated teachers last week after messages apparently inviting them for jabs were circulated on WhatsApp.

More than 100 turned up at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, South London, on Thursday after receiving a message telling them it was giving jabs to education staff.

Teachers were also vaccinated at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in the City of London and at a vaccination centre in Canterbury, Kent, last weekend.

At the moment, the NHS is only vaccinating people aged over 70 or those deemed extremely clinically vulnerable and health and care workers.   

Last month, the NHS’s chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said there should be a ‘legitimate discussion’ about vaccinating public-facing workers such as teachers after those most at risk have received their jabs.  

He also suggested those with learning disabilities should be considered for the next round of vaccinations, and said that this should perhaps happen as early as February.

Sir Simon told the Committee that Covid vaccines were being used as fast as they arrived in the NHS, and more than half of those aged 75-79 have now had their first vaccine doses.

‘We are at the moment pretty much using up each week’s vaccine as we get it, as we receive it through the safety testing, the batch testing, distribution to the NHS, then it gets sent out across the country,’ he said.