Healthy children aged five to 11 can now have jab

Healthy children aged five to 11 have started receiving Covid-19 jabs across the Canterbury district for the first time.

The roll-out of vaccine doses to under-12s began on Monday, coinciding with the start of the Easter holidays.

It came as infection rates among five- to nine-year-olds started to fall again after more than trebling in a fortnight.

Vaccines for children aren’t being given in school or at GP surgeries - like most routine childhood immunisations - but instead at vaccination centres or pharmacies administering coronavirus jabs as part of the national roll-out.

One such centre is at the Odeon cinema in Canterbury.

Slots are now available through the National Booking System.

Before this week, Covid-19 vaccinations for those aged between

five and 11 had been strictly limited to children who are clinically vulnerable or who have suppressed immune systems as a result of an underlying health condition.

However, following the JCVI recommendation that vaccines also be offered to all five to 11-year-olds, to boost immunity and increase their protection against any future waves of

Covid, the roll-out was extended.

Children are being offered the Covid-19 Pfizer vaccine, and each jab is a third of the dose that is given to older children and adults.

Those youngsters who are at greater risk of serious illness if they catch the virus are being given two doses eight weeks apart.

All other children are to be offered two doses of vaccine which are given 12 weeks apart.

If a child has already had a case of coronavirus they will need to wait 12 weeks before getting vaccinated.

The NHS says for most children Covid-19 remains a mild illness that may require a few days off school but rarely leads to more serious complications.

And while the current Omicron variant appears to be particularly mild in children, with mostly cold-like symptoms reported, health experts say it is not known if future variants of coronavirus will be of similar severity.

Thinkstock Children aged five to 11 can now have jabs