MORE than 600,000 Brits will be invited to get their spring Covid booster jabs next week.
Eligible over-75s, care home residents and those aged 12 with weaker immune systems will receive texts and letters from the NHS as the next wave of appointments become available.
Around 5.5million people in England qualify for the extra shot – pegged as the key to getting life back to normal.
And since rolling out spring boosters on March 21, more than 470,000 people have come forward, NHS England said.
The dishing out of slots is being staggered to prevent health workers from being overwhelmed.
But at least five million people will have been summoned for a dose of either Pfizer or Moderna before the summer.
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Over-50s are expected to be offered another top-up in the autumn to help ward off a winter surge.
The NHS is asking people to wait to be invited before trying to book, with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation recommending that eligible people get their vaccine six months after their initial booster for maximum effectiveness.
Dr Nikki Kanani, deputy lead for the NHS Vaccination Programme, said: “Over the course of the pandemic, vaccinations have been key to helping society get back to normal and allowing us to enjoy time with friends, family and loved ones.
“And they continue to play a crucial role in protecting us all against Covid, so please do book in when invited.”
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: “I’m so grateful to our brilliant NHS staff and volunteers who have sprung into action yet again to rollout spring boosters to keep the most vulnerable safe.
“Vaccines remain our best line of defence against this virus, and it’s thanks to these protections that we are all able to do the things we love.
“With hundreds of thousands more invites being sent to eligible people this week, it’s vital to come forward as soon as you can.”
Their pleas for Brits to get jabbed come as coronavirus infection levels climb close to record highs.
Around one in 16 people in private households in England – or 3.5 million people – are likely to have had Covid in the week to March 19, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This is up from one in 20, or 2.7 million people, in the previous week and is the third week in a row that infections are estimated to have risen.
The jump is being driven by the Omicron BA.2 variant, a more transmissible form of Omicron, and is the case across all age groups and regions.
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But experts have warned people not to panic as hospitalisation levels remain stable.
Dr Simon Clarke, of Reading University said: “I don’t think we should be panicking because it’s not filling up intensive care wards, which are the NHS’s real bottleneck.”
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