NHS starts vaccinating people aged 60 to 63

THE NHS on Monday (1) started vaccinating people aged 60 to 63 years.

The health service will invite almost two million people in this age group this week. Letters explaining how they can make an appointment to get the vaccine through the national booking service have already been sent, a statement said.

According to the NHS, the latest batch of invites arriving this week will mean everyone in the first seven priority groups will have been offered a jab, with people aged between 50 and 60 set to be invited shortly.

The latest invites come after the NHS wrote out to almost 450,000 people ageed 64 along with 600,000 who have recently been asked to shield last week.

Professor Stephen Powis, the NHS’s national medical director, said: “I would urge anyone who has been invited to take up the offer – it doesn’t matter when you were invited you can still come forward and protect yourself and others.”

People can use the national booking service to reserve a slot at one of more than NHS Vaccination Centres or almost 200 pharmacy-led services across the country, the statement added.

The booking service can be accessed at https://www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination, or call 119 free of charge.

Vaccinations are now being administered at more than 1,600 sites across the country, including mosques, museums and rugby grounds.

Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said: "Since around four fifths of 65-69 year olds have now been vaccinated, we're rapidly working our way down the generations, with people ages 60+ now able to come forward. As expected vaccine supply increases in March, we're planning for further acceleration as we head towards Easter."

Vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi has urged people to come forward as quickly as possible to protect themselves and others from Covid-19.

The NHS said that more than 16.5 million people across England, over a third of the adult population, have received the life-saving jab.