Ministers are being urged to extend the Covid booster programme to all ages as the nation is “losing its immunity”.
Brits who have been invited for a Covid booster are being encouraged to get their jab if they haven’t already.
It comes as the UK is set to require a negative Covid test for all passengers arriving from China as cases soar in the country, it has been reported.
Reports that China could be experiencing up to a million new cases a day has sparked global fears about the potential for new variants to emerge. Concerns have been rising since Beijing said it would reopen its borders next week.
China’s Covid wave has been blamed on a number of factors including its zero-Covid policy as well as the type of vaccine it used.
In the UK, currently only those who are over 50, are at high risk from the virus or are frontline staff in health or social care are eligible for a seasonal booster.
Professor Christina Pagel, director of UCL’s Clinical Operational Research Unit, said: “We should be extending the booster programme to all ages. That has absolutely nothing to do with the situation in China. Everyone seems to be panicking, but it's not even like there's any suggestion that there's a new variant.
“But I think we should be boosting. Adults under 50 haven't had a dose of vaccine in about a year now so we're losing our immunity. I don't know why we're not, as many other countries are.”
Prof Pagel said “there’s a lot of demand” to have the jab among people under 50, adding: “We have the supply. So I don't quite know why we're not doing it.”
Professor Andrew Pollard said it was very difficult to know what impact any new variant would have in Britain as it was likely to be best-adapted to spreading in the Chinese population.
The chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "The immunity in the population currently relates to vaccines that have been given in the population over the last couple of years and are different to the vaccines we have had.”
Dr Mary Ramsay, Director of Public Health Programmes at the UK Health Security Agency, urged “everyone who is eligible” to get their booster jab. There are no current plans to expand the Covid booster programme.
Dame Kate Bingham, the former chair of the world-beating Vaccines Taskforce last month said the UK is going 'backwards' when it comes to pandemic preparedness.
She said she was 'baffled' by the decisions to 'dismantle' many of the capabilities she helped set up.
The UK will become the third European country after Italy and Spain to impose restrictions for fliers from China, joining other nations including the US and Japan.
PCR tests from people who have recently travelled to China will be fast-tracked to labs to detect any new variants in the UK, it was also reported.
Anyone who takes a PCR test, which is mainly people in hospitals or care homes, will be asked if they have recently been to the country.
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