We land 60m Pfizer jabs booster

THE UK has secured an additional 60million doses of the Pfizer vaccine as part of the booster jab programme this autumn to ‘keep us safe and free’.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said they will be used to tackle the threat of new strains and help to protect the progress made to date through the vaccination programme.

It brings the number of Pfizer doses procured to 100million – the same amount of AstraZeneca vaccines ordered.

Trials will begin in June to examine the effectiveness of using combinations of different jabs to establish the best approach for the booster programme, which will start with the most vulnerable. Mr Hancock said variants were the ‘biggest risk’ to the country’s progress. He told a Downing Street press conference last night: ‘We’re working on our plans for booster shots, which are the best way to keep us safe and free while we get this disease under control across the whole world.’

He added: ‘As of today, we are on track for step three [of the roadmap] on May 17. And that is good news. We’re almost exactly where the modellers predicted that we would be at this point.’

Sufficient doses have been ordered to cover the entire population but the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation will determine how best to deliver booster shots when more data becomes available.

It comes after public health officials said boosters may only be necessary if a vaccineresistant variant emerges, with protection lasting longer than previously thought.

Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at Public Health England, told MPs: ‘The waning [of antibodies] may not be happening as quickly as we might have predicted.’