Over-65s could receive an updated autumn “super booster” jab to protect against Omicron, it has been suggested.
Reports claim the updated Moderna vaccine is expected to receive approval from regulators within weeks.
The jab, known as “214”, is bivalent – meaning it helps build immunity to both the original Wuhan strain and the Omicron variants.
Pfizer-Biontech is also developing a bivalent jab, as well as one designed to target the group of Omicron variants alone. Moderna claims UK officials have expressed “definite interest” in purchasing the new jabs.
Dr Paul Burton, the firm’s chief medical officer, said tests had shown the bivalent jab produced a strong immune response.
He told a newspaper: “I think the conclusions are that boosting with 214 really could be a turning point in our fight against the SARS-Cov-2 virus.”
Any jab will have to get the green light from the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to be used in Britain.
So far the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has ordered the NHS to prepare for an autumn booster programme for over-65s and frontline health and care workers.
It is not known if it will be expanded to other groups.
Meanwhile, hospital cases of coronavirus could soar to an 18-month peak as the latest Covid-19 wave sweeps Britain, a top health boss warned yesterday.
Dame Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, urged people to prepare for a new spike as two Omicron variants grip the country.
A total of 2.3 million people in private households are estimated to have had the virus last week, up 32% from a week earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics.
