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Vaccines to protect at-risk people against Covid and flu this winter will be rolled out a month earlier than planned in England, because of the emergence of a new Covid variant.
NHS England bosses said it could be “a very challenging winter” if the variant increased the risk of infection.
Anybody over 65, older adult care home residents and immunosuppressed people are to receive jabs from 11 September.
The plan is to jab as many eligible people as possible by 31 October.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) says there is limited information available about the new variant BA.2.86, but it has a high number of mutations and has appeared in several countries.
It is not classified as a variant of concern but health officials believe speeding up the autumn vaccination programme will protect those at greatest risk of becoming severely ill.
It could also reduce the impact on the NHS this winter.
But pharmacists are critical of the short-notice changes to the plan, saying it has “created confusion for pharmacy teams trying to make plans”.
The vaccination programme usually starts in September, but the government pushed it back to October to produce a shorter gap between the jabs being administered and winter viruses circulating.
“The government must plan ahead more decisively next year to avoid such uncertainty,” says Tase Oputu, director of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
The UK’s vaccine experts, the JCVI, advise that the following groups should be offered a Covid-19 vaccine this autumn:
residents in a care home for older adults
all adults aged 65 years and over
anyone aged six months to 64 years in a clinical risk group
front line health and social care workers
anyone aged 12 to 64 years who lives in the same house as people with weakened immune systems
People eligible for a free flu vaccine are listed on the NHS UK website.
Dame Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UKHSA, said new Covid variants were expected to emerge and there was limited information on BA.2.86 at the moment.
“As with all emergent and circulating Covid-19 variants – both in the UK and internationally – we will continue to monitor BA.2.86 and to advise government and the public as we learn more.
“In the meantime, please come forward for the vaccine when you are called.”
In Scotland, the autumn vaccination programme starts on 4 September. Covid jabs will be on offer to anyone over 65, while flu jabs will go to the over-50s.