VACCINATING police officers should be a priority, the county’s police chief said.

Wiltshire Police chief constable Kier Pritchard said officers had put themselves in harm’s way, sometimes “almost blind as to whether or not there was a risk”.

In England, all frontline health and social care workers have been offered the Covid-19 vaccine.

But an independent report from a government advisory panel published earlier this month suggested that “occupational vaccination” should be addressed as part of a second phase.

Mr Pritchard told the Adver: “I think there’s a real case for saying that all frontline workers should be prioritised.

“My officers and staff throughout this pandemic have put themselves in harm’s way.

"They do that every single day.

“In those early stages putting themselves into situations where the qualities and the concerns of the pandemic were completely unknown.

“They’ve had to police through this. They’ve been continuing to deliver front-line services and attending scenes, attending domestic abuse incidents and so on.

“In those early stages they were doing that almost blind as to whether or not there was a risk.”

His officers continued to put themselves at risk in spite of better information about the virus and better access to personal protective equipment.

“We know so much more about the virus now, but it still remains live, it still remains invisible, it’s still a huge concern to all frontline workers,” Mr Pritchard said.

Last week, Metropolitan Police Federation chairman Ken Marsh warned that police officers in the capital could become super-spreaders unless they were vaccinated against the virus.

Mr Marsh told the BBC: “We have the ability as police officers to become super-spreaders because we’re not just in the boroughs of London, 32 of them, we go out of the boroughs as well.

“I find it breathtaking that the government aren’t for one minute thinking ‘we need to vaccinate our frontline officers so they protect themselves and protect the public'.”