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Those over 70 could begin receiving booster shots to protect against new variants of the coronavirus in September based on plans for the future launch of the vaccine.
Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said the first booster doses would go to the top four priority groups, including nursing home staff, NHS workers and the clinically extremely vulnerable.
He told the Telegraph that this would likely start in September and that the government expects up to eight different shots to be available by the fall.
A quantity will reportedly be made in the UK, which could ease pressure on supplies amid tensions with the European Union as it grapples with AstraZeneca shortages.
When asked when the booster program would start, Zahawi told the newspaper: “The most likely date will be September.
“Jonathan Van-Tam (the deputy chief medical officer) thinks that if we’re going to see a requirement for a booster jab to protect the most vulnerable, it would be around September.”
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EU suspends vaccine export bans
Ministers faced pressure to protect the success of the vaccination program against importing new variants from abroad, and the Guardian reported that officials met on Friday to consider expanding the travel “red list” required by hotel quarantine.
Labor’s shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said: “The UK government is once again doing very little, too late to COVID-19 – and it is the British who will pay the price.
“Ministers must do everything possible to prevent new variants from reaching the UK, and move to a comprehensive hotel quarantine system now.”
European Union leaders backed stricter vaccine shipping controls as the bloc struggles with their implementation, but fell short of imposing an export ban.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said AstraZeneca must “catch up” on deliveries to the EU before exporting doses elsewhere.
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COVID-19: Extension of emergency powers approved
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Joe Biden discussed their vaccination schedules in a call Friday afternoon.
“The prime minister emphasized that global access to vaccines will be key to defeating the pandemic,” a Downing Street spokesman said.
The European Medicines Agency approved measures that will increase the manufacturing capacity and supply of COVID-19 vaccines.
The EU agency approved the Halix site in Leiden in the Netherlands for the production of the active vaccine substance from AstraZeneca, increasing the licensed sites to four.
And it supported a new manufacturing site in the German city of Marburg, as well as more flexible storage conditions for Pfizer’s jab.
Meanwhile, the government has been accused by a senior conservative of failing ethnic minority, Asian and black communities and young women over their doubts about vaccines.
Caroline Nokes, chairwoman of the Commons Equality and Women Committee, said in a letter to Mr. Zahawi that not addressing the issue could be “devastating” for vaccine-hesitant groups, as well as for society at large.
The former minister said disparities in vaccine acceptance and vacillation are “more prominent” among ethnic minority groups, adults in disadvantaged areas and young women.
Nokes told Sky News that there were “clear disparities” in vaccine adoption in white people compared to those in black and Southeast Asian communities, where it is “demonstrably lower.”
He called on the government to publish more data on the issue and develop a “coherent strategy to reassure communities, to provide them with the evidence that the vaccine is safe for them to have.”
The government responded to Ms Nokes’ letter saying that it is working hard with the NHS to “encourage people from all communities to come forward” for vaccination.
