Booster jabs available to under-18s from Monday ahead of end of Plan B

UNDER-18s can start booking their Covid booster jabs online from Monday.

Top-up doses will initially be available to 40,000 16 and 17-year-olds — as PM Boris Johnson prepares to drop Covid Plan B rules.


Booster jabs available to under-18s from Monday ahead of end of Plan B
Under-18s can start booking their Covid booster jabs online from Monday

Booster jabs available to under-18s from Monday ahead of end of Plan B

The NHS has revealed nearly 900,000 teens in the age group — around seven in ten — have had one dose.

And some 600,000 have already visited jab sites for their second.

They will be eligible for a third in coming weeks after a three-month gap between doses.

Invites will be sent out to encourage a big take-up, with the group able to book via an online system or simply have one at their nearest walk-in centre.

Until now, boosters were only recommended for the clinically vulnerable in this particular age group.

Analysis from the UK Health Security Agency has shown a booster jab, on top of the two doses, increases protection against Omicron.

But the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation says the NHS is not able to jab 16 and 17-year-olds who have had a positive Covid case within the previous 12 weeks.

Those considered high-risk must wait four weeks.


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Health Secretary Sajid Javid last night said: “We can learn to live with Covid if everybody comes forward for their vaccines and gets boosted now.”

Dr Nikki Kanani, GP and deputy lead for the NHS vaccination programme, said: “Covid has caused so much disruption for so many families over the past two years, affecting young people’s lives and education.

“I’d urge everyone, whatever your age, to come forward and get that vital top-up as soon as it is possible.”

Boris Johnson is poised to drop Plan B rules — such as working from home and Covid passes — from January 26, with an announcement as early as this week.

Ministers will also discuss whether face masks in indoor venues will continue.

Covid infections fell again yesterday, with 81,713 compared to 99,652 on Friday.

The rolling seven-day total was down 402,686 on the previous week. There were 287 deaths, up on the 270 reported the day before.


Booster jabs available to under-18s from Monday ahead of end of Plan B
Some 600,000 under-18s have already visited jab sites for their second jab