Explaining the policy today, the Prime Minister’s spokesman added: “The over 60s should take extra care because there is evidence they could be at greater risk of becoming seriously ill.
“The scientific advice is that people in the over 60 age group do have a higher risk of becoming more unwell with
coronavirus, so they should take extra precaution.”
To add confusion however, official government guidance initially went further and said over-60s were actually part of the “clinically vulnerable” group, rather than just following the same rules as that group.
It said: “Clinically vulnerable people are those who are aged 60 or over (regardless of medical conditions)”.
The guidance originally said over-60s had officially joined the clinically vulnerable group
After several inquiries by the Mirror, the page was corrected last night to make clear that, while not all over-60s are clinically vulnerable, they are being asked to follow the same rules as the vulnerable anyway.
The new guidance says: “If you are clinically vulnerable, or over the age of 60, you should be especially careful to follow the rules and minimise your contacts with others.”
The update at 7.22pm was labelled as a “minor update to guidance” without any formal log of what had changed.
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The clinically vulnerable group includes all over-70s, and anyone under 70 with one of a range of underlying health conditions.
These include asthma, COPD, emphysema, bronchitis,
diabetes, Parkinson’s, MND, MS, cerebral palsy, or a BMI above 40.
Pregnant women and those with chronic heart, kidney or liver disease are also included.
The ‘clinically vulnerable’ group has not officially been extended to include all over-60s.
However, the over-60s are now asked to follow the same rules as the ‘clinically vulnerable’ - even though they aren’t in the group.