Coronavirus booster vaccine jabs for hundreds of thousands of individuals in England will start to be supplied this week, the NHS introduced.
The vaccine might be accessible to care residence residents, people who find themselves 75 and over, and the immunosuppressed aged 12 and over.
About 5 million individuals are anticipated to be given the jab, with 600,000 invited to e-book their dose this week.
The booster announcement got here because the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics (ONS) confirmed a resurgence of Covid instances is beneath approach throughout the UK, with infections within the over-70s at a report excessive and college leaders fearing that preparations for A-levels and GCSEs are being disrupted by outbreaks amongst employees and college students.
Based mostly on random swab testing, the ONS estimates nearly 5% of the inhabitants in England, or 1,544,600 folks, had Covid within the week ending 12 March, and three.5% of individuals within the oldest age group. Infections additionally reached a report excessive in Scotland, the place one in 14 examined optimistic.
Sarah Crofts, on the ONS An infection Survey, stated: “These newest figures present additional will increase in infections throughout many of the UK with excessive ranges of an infection all over the place. It’s notable additionally that infections have risen in all age teams, with the over-70s reaching their highest estimate since our survey started.”
Sajid Javid, the well being secretary, stated: “Following the huge success of the rollout up to now, we are actually providing over-75s and essentially the most susceptible a spring booster dose to prime up their safety in opposition to this virus.”
The NHS Covid-19 vaccination programme will contact folks when it’s their flip to be vaccinated once more and, as soon as they’ve an invite, they are going to be capable to e-book their appointment via the Nationwide Reserving System both on-line or by calling NHS 119.
Native NHS groups may even be administering the jab in care properties.
Final week, the seven-day common for UK hospital admissions associated to Covid rose above 1,700, with greater than half being admitted instantly due to Covid, the NHS Confederation stated. NHS employees absences have begun to rise once more, whereas emergency departments are additionally beneath stress.
NHS chief government Amanda Pritchard stated: “The NHS Covid-19 vaccination programme has not stopped in its efforts to guard folks from coronavirus – round 5 million of essentially the most susceptible folks might be eligible for a spring dose and from tomorrow, we are going to begin giving eligible teams their extra top-up in safety.
“We’ve got protected hundreds of thousands of individuals at pace due to the efforts of our employees, aided by volunteers. They’ll as soon as once more rise to the following problem.”
