Covid vaccine boosters will be offered to the under-50s for the first time, the UK’s scientific advisors have announced.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has also advised that a second dose of a vaccine should be given to 16 and 17-year-olds.
The booster roll out is being extended to those aged between 40 and 49 after signs that protection is gradually waning among this age group.
People should be offered their third dose six months after their second as part of efforts to protect the population this winter.
Teenagers who are 16 or 17 will be offered a second jab at least 12 weeks after their first.
The JCVI said people should be offered the Pfizer or Moderna jab as a booster, irrespective of which vaccine they had initially.
It’s after a new study highlighted how boosters can significantly increase people’s protection against getting a symptomatic case of Covid-19.
Two weeks after getting their booster, adults over 50 had at least 93% reduced risk of getting a symptomatic case of Covid-19, according to a study from the UK Health Security Agency (UKSHA).
Announcing the extension of the roll-out Professor Wei Shen Lim, the JCVI chairman, said the study proved boosters ‘markedly’ strengthen protection against coronavirus.
He told a televised Downing Street briefing on Monday morning: ‘Whilst we don’t yet have data on protection against hospitalisation and unfortunately people dying from Covid-19, we can expect protection to be even higher than that figure of 93% because that’s what happened so far in the vaccine programme.
‘So overall we are advising now that the data tells that the booster dose markedly strengthens existing protection and will extend the duration of that protection against serious disease.
‘We therefore urge people who are eligible for a booster to step and have your booster and maximise your protection.’
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