UK OFFERS BOOSTER JABS TO OVER-40S; SECOND DOSE TO 16, 17-YEAR-OLDS

Mon 15 November 2021:

After experts given the go-ahead on Monday, Britain’s booster program for Covid-19 vaccinations will be expanded to include younger people.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation of the UK government recommended that all healthy individuals aged 40-49 be administered a booster six months following their second dose.

The JCVI also stated that 16 and 17-year-olds should be given a second dosage of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

Earlier, that age group has only received one shot in the UK, pending more research on the vaccine’s safety in children under the age of 18.

The expanded age groups covered by the new advice will “help extend our protection into 2022”, professor Wei Shen Lim of the JCVI said in a statement.

The UK launched the Western world’s first mass vaccination campaign against Covid-19 in December 2020, about a year after the disease emerged in China.

But Britain’s government has been repeatedly criticised for its response to the pandemic more generally.

So far, nearly 143,000 people have died in Britain within 28 days of a positive test for Covid, the second-worst toll in Europe behind Russia.

Cases in the UK first peaked in early April 2020, before falling in late spring and summer. Numbers started to increase again in the autumn, falling back briefly in November before reaching a record level in January 2021.

Since then cases had declined sharply but have since increased again after the latest lockdown release. They now remain at a high but relatively stable level. The number of tests available affects the number of recorded cases.

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