UK COVID vaccine queue - JCVI priority cohort calculator
The United Kingdom did not offer every adult a first COVID-19 dose on the same winter morning.
Run — free
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation published nine Phase 1 priority cohorts so the earliest vials went to care-home residents and their carers, then to the oldest adults, frontline health and social care workers, and people who were clinically extremely vulnerable. This UK vaccine-queue calculator assigns that JCVI cohort number from three facts you already know: age in completed years, occupation class, and clinical vulnerability. Optional care-home residence marks group 1 for older adults. A negative age is rejected as invalid input rather than being folded into an absolute value. The free browser widget and the prepaid API share one isomorphic module, so classroom keys and automation pipelines always agree. Treat every result as an educational reconstruction of the 2020–21 sequenced framework, never as an NHS booking, a medical order, or a substitute for a GP or local vaccination service. Successful API calls use the published $0.002 per item; invalid input is not billed.
How to use it
Enter your values in the form above. The tool checks them before calculating and shows the result on the same page.
Check your inputs
Use the labels and units shown next to each field. If something is missing or outside the allowed range, the page points to the field to fix.
Use it again or automate it
Use the browser tool for individual checks and the API when you need the same capability in an automated workflow.
What you can do with it
Get an answer now
Enter one set of values and see the result without building a spreadsheet or script.
Compare scenarios
Change one value at a time and rerun the calculation to understand what affects the result.
Automate repeated work
Use the API when the same calculation needs to run inside your product or workflow.
FAQ
How is the UK COVID-19 JCVI vaccine priority cohort assigned?
Send age in years, occupation (care_home, health_social_care, or other), and clinical_vulnerability (cev, cv, or none). Optional care_home_resident defaults to false. The API walks the JCVI Phase 1 waterfall and returns the highest matching cohort number plus eligibility_status.
What happens if age is negative?
The task fails with invalid_input. Years of age cannot be negative, so the calculator does not take an absolute value and the request is not billed.
What do the JCVI cohort numbers mean?
Cohorts 1 through 9 are the original Phase 1 priority groups, with 1 highest. Cohort 1 is care-home residents and their carers; 2 is age 80+ and frontline health and social care; 3 is age 75+; 4 is age 70+ and clinically extremely vulnerable adults; 5 is age 65+; 6 is ages 16–64 with underlying conditions; 7–9 are remaining adults 60+, 55+, and 50+. Cohort 0 means the profile is not in those nine groups.
Does this book an NHS vaccine appointment in the United Kingdom?
No. It is an educational reconstruction of the 2020–21 JCVI Phase 1 sequenced framework. It does not call an NHS portal, reserve a clinic slot, or give medical advice.
What does the UK COVID vaccine queue calculator cost?
The browser tool is free. API requests use prepaid KIT balance at $0.002 per successful call; invalid input is not billed.
For developers — API access
Everything on this page is available programmatically. This section is for teams who want to wire it into their own systems; everyone else can just use the tool above.
API endpoint
Prefer to automate it? One authenticated POST creates the task; the result comes back by webhook or a signed link. The same capability also runs here on the web, by email and from Telegram — and soon from our app too.
Call it from your stack
curl -X POST https://api.kit.forhosting.com/health/vaccine-queue-uk \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $KIT_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"age":82,"occupation":"other","clinical_vulnerability":"none"}'const res = await fetch("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/health/vaccine-queue-uk", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
"Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.KIT_KEY}`,
"Content-Type": "application/json"
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"age": 82,
"occupation": "other",
"clinical_vulnerability": "none"
})
});
const { task_id } = await res.json();import os, requests
res = requests.post(
"https://api.kit.forhosting.com/health/vaccine-queue-uk",
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['KIT_KEY']}"},
json={
"age": 82,
"occupation": "other",
"clinical_vulnerability": "none"
},
)
task_id = res.json()["task_id"]<?php
$res = file_get_contents("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/health/vaccine-queue-uk", false, stream_context_create([
"http" => [
"method" => "POST",
"header" => "Authorization: Bearer " . getenv("KIT_KEY") . "\r\nContent-Type: application/json",
"content" => '{"age":82,"occupation":"other","clinical_vulnerability":"none"}',
],
]));
$task = json_decode($res, true);body := bytes.NewBufferString(`{"age":82,"occupation":"other","clinical_vulnerability":"none"}`)
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.kit.forhosting.com/health/vaccine-queue-uk", body)
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("KIT_KEY"))
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)Example request
{
"age": 82,
"occupation": "other",
"clinical_vulnerability": "none"
}Example response
{
"task_id": "tsk_a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6",
"type": "health.vaccine_queue_uk",
"status": "queued",
"_links": {
"result": "/tasks/tsk_…/result"
}
}The API is asynchronous: the call returns a task_id immediately and the result arrives by webhook. Polling is capped at 1 req/s per task.
Pricing
Published price — no tokens, no invented credits. A failed task is never charged.
Limits
max_age | 120 |
Errors
| HTTP | Code | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
401 | unauthorized | Missing or invalid API key. |
402 | insufficient_balance | Your balance doesn't cover the task price. |
404 | unknown_type | That task type doesn't exist. |
429 | rate_limited | Too many requests. Use the webhook instead of polling. |