Covid booster vaccines: Over 50s, care home residents and health workers to get third jab

  • Watch Matthew Hudson's report

Covid booster vaccines will be offered to people in the UK aged 50 and over, those in care homes and frontline health and social care workers, the government has announced.

It means more than 30 million people in the UK will be offered a third dose of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna coronavirus vaccines.

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi told ITV News the programme will be the "final piece of the jigsaw" in the UK's bid to end the coronavirus pandemic.

He said the government had received guidance from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to move ahead "with a really ambitious Covid booster programme".

Who will be offered a booster jab?

  • Those living in residential care homes for older adults

  • All adults aged 50 years or over

  • Frontline health and social care workers

  • All those aged 16 to 49 years with underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk of severe Covid-19

  • Adult household contacts of those with weakened immune systems

GPs in the region said they were already preparing for the rollout of booster jabs.

Dr Monica Alibi, a GP in Luton said:

Meanwhile, hospitality businesses in the Anglia region have reacted positively to the news that measures including lockdowns and Covid passports will only be re-introduced if the NHS faces a winter crisis. Asked if it meant there would be no more lockdowns, the vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi  responded:

Mark Shaw, Operations Manager at Cambridge's Chop House restaurant said the news was a welcome relief.

The Chop House in Cambridge Credit: ITV Anglia

Louise Holly, Co-owner of MASH nightclub in Cambridge echoed Mark's sentiments.

She said she feared they would have lost business if Covid passports went ahead due to the young age of their clientele.

The Government says all this is only possible because of the success of the vaccine rollout.