ETHNIC minorities and people from deprived background should be prioritised in the coronavirus vaccine rollout, according to MP Yasmin Qureshi.

The Bolton South East Labour representative welcomed the announcement that the shielding list in England has doubled - after a new computer algorithm takes into account ethnicity, deprivation and weight.

Ms Qureshi, who was hospitalised with Covid-19 in October, said: “When people started dying last year, it was noted that the higher rates were among black and minority ethnic (BME) communities and people from economically and socially deprived backgrounds.

“It is something that many people have been raising with the Government since last year.”

She also highlighted concerns that people in these priority groups are more likely to live further away from vaccination centres, while others may be less likely to have technology to receive information about the vaccination process.

She added: “We should be using places of worship and town halls, getting into local communities to vaccinate people there.”

The MP also voiced her thanks Professor Hippisley-Cox and her team at the University of Oxford, who came up with QCovid, an evidence-based model focusing on risk.

It provides information on people’s risk of serious illness and has the potential to help patients and doctors reach a shared understanding of risk.

The MP says she is now using her experience of battling coronavirus to encourage her constituents to take up the vaccine.

“In the next week or so we’re going to be having a big community event with some of my councillors to talk to people about getting vaccinated,” she added.