Vaccine offer ‘for all pupils’

ALL pupils could be offered a Covid 1 vaccine in future to stop their education being disrupted, it emerged yesterday.

Chief medical officer Chris Whitty said experts are gathering data on whether current vaccines are safe for children. If they are satisfied, a mass vaccination programme could be introduced for under-18s ‘with caution’.

He added that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation is examining whether to prioritise vaccination for vulnerable children. Professor Whitty told the Government’s pandemic briefing last night that Covid poses a ‘much lower’ risk to most children than to adults.

However, he stressed pupils constantly having time off school because of disease outbreaks could damage their life chances.

He said the ‘key concern’ must be children’s safety and said the current priority remained rolling out the vaccine for over-18s.