60m top-up jabs

Booster shots in autumn to guard against variants

AN extra 60 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been bought to top up immunity with booster shots this autumn. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the boosters were “the best way to keep us safe and free while we get this disease under control across the whole world”.

The booster shots will provide added protection if new, more dangerous, variants emerge. They are likely to be offered first to the elderly and those with existing health conditions. Mr Hancock sa id: “Our vaccination programme is bringing back our freedom, but the biggest risk to that progress is the risk posed by a new variant. We’re working on our plans for booster shots.

“These further 60 million doses will be used, alongside others, as part of our booster programme from later this year.”

The UK is using the Pfizer, Astrazeneca, and Moderna jabs and clinical trials are ongoing to find out if mixing different vaccines works or even provides higher protection.

Some 47.5 million total vaccines have been administered. The UK reported 29 more Covid deaths yesterday, bringing the total to 127,480, the fifth-highest globally.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-tam said there were now an average of 2,000 new cases per day, a “very low” level compared to September. He said: “My sense is that probably we are at, or close to, the bottom at the moment in terms of this level of disease in the UK.”

Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at Public Health England, defended the decision not to follow the US by allowing extra freedoms for those who have had both jabs.

She told Science and Technology Committee MPS: “We are trying to say this is about the population as a whole, rather than privileged individuals who have had two doses being able to do things others can’t.”