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LONDON: Britain’s Covid-19 booster vaccine rollout is to be extended to people aged between 40 and 49, officials said on Monday, in a bid to boost waning immunity in the population ahead of the colder winter months. Currently all people aged 50 and above, those who are clinically vulnerable and frontline health workers are eligible for boosters, and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said that the rollout would be extended.
The advice comes as the UK health security agency released data from a real-world study which found the booster gave over 90% protection against symptomatic Covid-19 for people aged 50 and above. PM Boris Johnson is leaning on booster vaccines and shots for children to try to withstand winter pressures on hospitals without resorting to another lockdown.
“If the booster programme is successful, and with very high uptake, we can massively reduce the worry about hospitalisation and death due to Covid at Christmas, and for the rest of this winter, for literally millions of people,” deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van Tam said. Britain is mainly using Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots in the booster rollout, with people being eligible six months after their second shot.
The real-world study found that protection against symptomatic disease following a booster was 93.1% for people who were initially given AstraZeneca’s vaccine, and 94% for people who had been given the Pfizer shot originally. However, the panel declined to recommend boosters for under 40s, saying it had found no robust evidence of a decline in protection.
The advice comes as the UK health security agency released data from a real-world study which found the booster gave over 90% protection against symptomatic Covid-19 for people aged 50 and above. PM Boris Johnson is leaning on booster vaccines and shots for children to try to withstand winter pressures on hospitals without resorting to another lockdown.
“If the booster programme is successful, and with very high uptake, we can massively reduce the worry about hospitalisation and death due to Covid at Christmas, and for the rest of this winter, for literally millions of people,” deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van Tam said. Britain is mainly using Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots in the booster rollout, with people being eligible six months after their second shot.
The real-world study found that protection against symptomatic disease following a booster was 93.1% for people who were initially given AstraZeneca’s vaccine, and 94% for people who had been given the Pfizer shot originally. However, the panel declined to recommend boosters for under 40s, saying it had found no robust evidence of a decline in protection.
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