Covid booster vaccinations and jabs for 12 to 15 year olds begin

Residents in care homes for older people are the first to be offered Covid-19 booster vaccinations from today. 

The group will be offered both flu and Covid booster vaccines after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised they could be given alongside one another.

From Tuesday, frontline health and social care workers can book an appointment for a booster jab online at NHS Inform. 

Adults aged 70 and over and those 16 and over who are on the highest risk list will begin to be contacted by letter or by their GP from the end of September.  

People on the highest risk list who were severely immunosuppressed at the time of their last Covid vaccine will be offered a third primary dose instead. 

Other eligible groups - including all those aged 16 to 49 years with underlying health conditions, adult carers, unpaid and young carers, adult household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals and all adults over 50 - will be able to book an appointment online from October.

Meanwhile, also from today children and young people aged 12 to 15 years old can attend drop-in clinics for vaccination if they wish to get their jab before they receive a letter inviting them for a scheduled appointment. 

Everyone in this age group will be invited for vaccination at a community based clinic or a school delivery session from 27 September.

Heath secretary Humza Yousaf said: "I am pleased to see the booster programme getting underway for residents in care homes for older people, offering longer lasting protection against severe Covid-19 illness.

"The booster programme will run alongside our biggest ever flu vaccine programme as both of these programmes are important for individual and for public health and wherever possible, those eligible will be offered Covid-19 booster and flu vaccines together.

"We are also starting vaccination of 12 to 15 year olds after Scottish ministers accepted advice from the four UK chief medical officers. This group can now head to drop-in clinics for their jabs or wait for a letter offering them a scheduled appointment."