Health chiefs urge population of Morecambe Bay to get their Covid booster jab when offered

Top-up doses of the vaccine are being given at care homes alongside the flu vaccine, where appropriate, to ensure those who are more vulnerable get the extra protection they need ahead of winter.

Boosters are currently offered to everyone aged 50 and over, frontline health and social care workers and those aged between 16 and 49 with an underlying health condition.

Dr Julie Colclough, a local GP and Clinical Lead of Grange and Lakes Primary Care Network, said: “I would really urge anyone who gets the offer of a Covid booster jab to take it up. The Covid booster vaccine helps improve the protection you have from your first two doses, and it helps give you longer-term protection against getting seriously ill from Covid.

“A booster dose will help to ensure those at higher risk from Covid, who were prioritised at the start of the vaccine programme, have enough protection going into winter which is when we know Covid can present a bigger risk to our health.

“The vaccines remain the best way to protect yourself, your family and friends.”

There is a minimum of six months required between the second Covid dose and the booster dose, so some people in the original nine priority groups may not become eligible until early next year.

Those who are eligible for a booster include:

*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 (as set out in the green book), and adult carers

*adult household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals