Team Lopez - Julia Lopez MP welcomes the government’s ongoing COVID-19 vaccination and free flu vaccination campaigns.
On 15 July, the government accepted advice from the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to offer a COVID-19 boost vaccine to:
- Residents in a care home for older adults and staff working in care homes for older adults
- Frontline health and social care workers
- All adults aged 50 years and over
- Persons aged 5 to 49 years in a clinical risk group including pregnant women, as set out in the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) Green Book Chapter 14a - Tables 3 and 4
- Persons aged 5 to 49 years who are household contacts of people with immunosuppression
- Persons aged 16 to 49 years who are carers, as set out in the UKHSA’s Green Book Chapter 14a - Table 3
The JCVI has broadened the final eligible groups, when compared to their interim advice in May, having considered the recent epidemiology of the BA.4 and BA.5 waves, as well as the benefits of aligning the COVID-19 programme with the flu vaccine rollout, concluding that expanding the offer would provide necessary protection to those at higher risk of severe illness and keep greater numbers of people out of hospital.
In addition, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) will be offering the free flu vaccination to additional groups. These groups will only be eligible once the most vulnerable, including previously announced pre-school and primary school children, those aged 65 years and over and those in clinical risk groups, have been offered the jab.
Mrs Lopez welcomes that the additional groups to be offered the free flu vaccine in England will be all adults aged 50 to 64 years and secondary school children in years 7, 8 and 9, who will be offered the vaccine in order of school year.
Welcoming this update, Mrs Lopez, said ‘The government’s vaccination programme continues to protect the nation against COVID-19 and I encourage all those eligible groups to take up the COVID-19 and flu vaccine when the time comes. This will give residents the best possible protection against severe outcomes of COVID-19 and flu this winter and relieve pressure on our local health services. Constituents are rightly concerned about the backlogs in elective care and by ensuring our vaccination rates remain high, work to reduce these backlogs can continue at pace. The NHS will announce in due course when and how eligible groups will be able to book an appointment for their COVID-19 autumn booster, and when people aged 50 to 64 years old who are not in a clinical risk group will be able to get their free flu jab.’
