Kids as young as 12 could be offered Covid jab as NHS draws up vaccine plan for when new school year starts

KIDS as young as 12 could be offered a coronavirus jab as part of NHS plans to inoculate children when the school year starts in September. 

Officials are reportedly preparing for a rollout in schools pending confirmation from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

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“Core planning scenario” documents compiled by NHS officials include giving a single dose to children aged 12 and over when the first school term begins in the Autumn, the Sunday Times reports. 

A source told the newspaper: “No decision has been made yet but we are drawing up planning materials for the different scenarios.”

Experts also stressed that the decision would be made based on infection rates over the next few months. 

Professor Adam Finn, who sits on the JCVI, said: “We need to be in a position to immunise children, particularly teenagers, promptly and efficiently if we need to.”

But Finn stressed that a rollout among children may not be necessary should virus rates remain low, adding: “We should only be doing vaccine programmes when we need to do them.”

Sources have said the Pfizer vaccine is the most likely to be given to children because they are the only ones to have produced trial data for under-16s.

A study of 2,260 children aged 12 to 15 published in March showed the jab had an efficacy of 100 per cent with no safety concerns.

Children rarely get very sick with Covid, and there have been barely any deaths in the UK.

But they are carriers of the virus, particularly those who are in secondary school, studies show.

Children are also at risk of long Covid and a serious disease named PIMS, which can cause stomach aches, a rash and even death, several weeks after Covid infection.