Vulnerable to be offered autumn Covid booster jab

COVID vaccines will be offered to some of the most vulnerable adults and children in Wales this autumn, the Welsh Government has announced.

It has confirmed a list of those who will be offered a Covid jab between September and December this year following the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s (JCVI) latest review of the existing vaccine programme in Wales.

Following the review, the Welsh Government has confirmed it will offer a single dose of a Covid-19 vaccine to:

■■ Residents in a care home for older adults, and staff working in care homes for older adults;

■■ Frontline health and social care workers;

■■ All those 65 years of age and over; and

■■ Adults aged 16 to 65 years in a clinical risk group.

Health minister Eluned Morgan said protecting the most vulnerable people in Wales would “continue to be of primary importance” as the government moved beyond the emergency response to the pandemic and to living safely with Covid.

She said the aim of the autumn programme would be to “supplement population immunity and protection against severe disease, specifically severe disease and hospitalisation, during the winter.”

“The JCVI will continue to consider the inclusion of further groups for the autumn programme over the coming weeks and I look forward to receiving its final advice in due course,” she said. “In the meantime, NHS Wales has already started work to plan for implementation of the programme, alongside the operation of the current vaccination campaigns, including the ongoing spring booster campaign.”

Ms Morgan also confirmed the government would stop delivering the spring booster programme at the end of June in order to “enable everyone currently receiving their spring booster to be eligible for vaccination again in the autumn between September and December, 2022.

“All those who turn 75 on or before June 30 are eligible for vaccination at any time during the spring booster campaign,” she continued.

“They must be at least three months past any earlier dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and cannot already have had a booster dose during the spring.

“This means some people will be 74 on the day they are vaccinated, but are eligible because they turn 75 before the cut-off date.

“This approach is consistent with the approach used in other programmes (like seasonal flu), and in other UK nations for their spring Covid-19 programme.”