People across the UK are to be offered another Covid booster jab within weeks in a bid to stop another spike in illness later this year. Hundreds of people are still dying every week from Covid - 810 in England and Wales in the week up to July 29 - and there are fears numbers will increase this autumn and winter.
This is because the virus spreads more easily in colder weather, especially as people gather indoors in poorly ventilated spaces, and because vaccine immunity is waning.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisations has confirmed there will be a Covid booster jab rollout this autumn. No date has yet been announced but it has been set for 'early autumn' meaning vaccination is likely to start in September.
According to the JCVI, the vaccine will be offered to...
• Residents in a care home for older adults and staff working in care homes fo rolder adults
• Frontline health and social care workers
• All adults aged 50 years and over
• People aged 5 to 49 years in a clinical risk group,
• People aged 5 to 49 years who are household contacts of people with immunosuppression
• People aged 16 to 49 years who are carers
The government has also announced that the annual flu vaccine project has been extended so that as well as older and vulnerable people getting a jab, it will be offered to anyone over 50 and secondary school children in years 7, 8 and 9.
Primary school children will also be vaccinated as well as children aged two and three.
People are also currently being vaccinated against monkeypox and a million children are to be offered a polio vaccine.
