Covid autumn booster jab rollout set to start in Lancaster & Morecambe

The autumn booster vaccine programme is set to start during the week of September 5, initially for care home residents and people who are housebound in Lancashire and South Cumbria

The National Booking Service will also open that week ahead of the wider rollout, due to start on September 12, with the NHS inviting those who are most susceptible to serious illness from Covid-19 and those aged 75 and over to book an appointment from that week.

Extensive planning for the rollout is already under way and local areas have already booked adult care home residents in for their vaccine.

Jane Scattergood, lead for the vaccination programme in Lancashire and South Cumbria, said: “It’s so exciting that our country is the first to offer the new vaccine which fights against the original strain of the virus and the Omicron variant.

“I would urge everyone who is eligible to get this vaccine as soon as they possibly can. The world has moved forward but Covid-19 is still a horrible virus that can make you seriously ill. The best way to protect yourself is to get every vaccine that is offered to you.”

As with previous campaigns, the oldest and most vulnerable will be called forward first, with people able to book in online or through 119 as long as it has been three months since their last dose.

The autumn booster campaign is among a package of NHS measures to prepare for winter, including ramping up bed capacity and increasing the number of 999 and NHS 111 staff.

NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said: "The NHS was the first healthcare system in the world to deliver a Covid-19 vaccine outside of clinical trials, and will now be the first to deliver the new, variant-busting vaccine when the rollout begins at the start of September.”

The NHS will offer people the new next-generation bivalent vaccine where appropriate and subject to sufficient supply being made available and will contact people when it is their turn to book in for the vaccine.

Eligible people may be offered the flu and Covid-19 jab at the same time.