Covid booster shots expected in autumn; one million jabs booked in two days

COVID booster jabs will be available by autumn, health secretary Matt Hancock said, as the country saw more than one million Covid-19 vaccines getting booked over the weekend after the NHS opened its vaccination for all remaining adults.

Saying that the results from trials of different combinations of vaccines are still awaited, Hancock said that the plans for the booster jabs in autumn will be out soon.

"We are currently trialing which combinations of jabs are the most effective," Hancock told BBC Breakfast. “In the next few weeks, when we get the clinical data through on what's the most effective combinations to have… then we'll set out all the details for the booster programme for the autumn.”

Trials are still under way to figure out the combinations for the third booster dose. Experts feel that the UK will also benefit from new vaccines from Novavax and Valneva, which are still awaiting approval from the UK's medicines regulator.

Meanwhile, Downing Street wants to offer Covid vaccine to all A-level and college students aged 16 and 17 in August before they go back to school in September, The Sun reported.

Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is understood to have raised “serious ethical concerns” over vaccinating under-18s and reportedly wants to hold off the plan to wait for more safety data to come out of the US and Israel, where such plans are already in motion.

A man receives a vaccine at the Chelsea F.C. pop up vaccine hub on June 19, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Hollie Adams/Getty Images)

Britons have reportedly been rushing to get their vaccines in recent days with more than one million jabs booked on Friday (18) and Saturday (19) across the country. The toll is expected to be higher as it does not include appointments at local GP-led vaccination services or people getting the jab at walk-in centres, NHS England said.  

Many stadiums in London were transformed into pop-centres over the weekend for the mass vaccination drive.

So far, nearly 60 per cent of UK adults are double-jabbed while more than four in five adults now have had their first dose.

Meanwhile, cases have risen by more than 37 per cent week-on-week as infections increased by 10,663. Five more deaths were reported on Monday (21), compared to three the same time last week.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson during his visit to a Covid-19 vaccination centre  on June 21, 2021. (Photo by Alberto Pezzali / POOL / AFP)

However, Prime minister Boris Johnson has assured that there will not be any further lockdowns. 

"Looking at where we are, looking at the efficacy of the vaccines against the variants that we can currently see - so alpha, delta, the lot of them, kappa, I think it's looking good for July 19 to be that terminus point,”  Johnson said during a visit to a laboratory in Hertfordshire on Monday (21).