After 11 cases of the Omicron CCP virus variant were identified in the UK, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) urgently expanded the eligibility to receive booster doses to include all remaining adults.
It also halved the waiting time for the booster shot from six months to three months after the second dose was given.
Children aged between 12 and 15 will be offered second doses no sooner than 12 weeks after their first doses, and severely immunosuppressed people aged 16 or above—who received three doses in their primary courses instead of two—will be given a fourth dose as a booster.
The vaccinations will be offered in order of descending age groups, with priority given to older adults and those in a COVID-19 at-risk group, the JCVI said.
Professor Wei Shen Lim, JCVI’s chair of COVID-19 immunisation, said while the vaccines may be “less good” against the Omicron variant than they are against the Delta variant, raising the level of the immune response generated by the vaccines, which were developed based on the original virus, will provide extra protection to new variants.
Lim said the gaps between doses are shortened to three month to “provide boosters early enough such that it is before any possible wave,” and that a soon-to-be-published Cov-Boost study showed that a booster dose given at about a three months interval still generated a very strong boosts response.
Most people will be offered a full dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine or a half dose of the Moderna vaccine, while those who can not take mRNA vaccines will be offered the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid told MPs that the UK has enough vaccine doses to facilitate the expansion.
He also told Parliament two more cases of the Omicron CCP virus variant were confirmed in England, meaning the UK has a total of 11 known cases of the variant—five in England and six in Scotland. Some cases in Scotland had no recent travel history or known links with others who have travelled to the countries in southern Africa, according to Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
From 4 a.m. on Tuesday, mandatory face covering will return in shops and on public transport in England, and contacts of Omicron variant cases will be required to self-isolate, regardless of their vaccination status.
MP will debate and vote on the emergency measures on Tuesday hours after they take effect.
Javid said ministers will review the necessity of the measures in three weeks.
