UK government to offer over 50s third coronavirus vaccine shot in autumn
Everyone aged over 50 in the UK will be offered a third Covid-19 vaccination in the autumn in an attempt to eradicate the threat from the infection entirely by Christmas, it has been reported.
The first round of the vaccine rollout has continued to see mass uptake across the UK - with more than 50 million doses administered so far and 95 per cent of over 50s vaccinated by April, The Independent reported.
Now trials are underway to assess the most effective way to immunise those in the most vulnerable age brackets in the autumn months to stop another spike in cases over winter, according to government sources cited by The Times.
Trials of two options are under way, supervised by Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, the newspaper said - adding that the booster regimen could be enough to undercut the threat from both new and existing variants of the virus.
The first reportedly involves vaccines specifically modified to tackle new variants, while the second is for a third shot of one of the three versions already in use: Pfizer-BioNTech , Oxford-AstraZeneca or Moderna.
It is thought the jab could be offered to the public alongside the flu vaccine at the same time, with patients given each immunisation in opposite arms.