Upgraded Covid vaccine to be available for winter booster programme
NHS SHETLAND has confirmed that it is expecting to have the newly approved bivalent Covid vaccine available for the winter booster programme which gets underway next week.
Earlier this month the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved the first Covid-19 booster vaccine which targets the original strain of the virus as well the Omicron variant.
Starting on 5 September, people in care homes and health and social care staff will be the first to be offered the winter booster.
The programme, which also includes the seasonal flu vaccination, will run until December.
NHS Shetland’s director of public health Dr Susan Laidlaw said: “We are expecting to have a new bivalent Covid vaccine for booster doses.
“The first groups to be vaccinated from next week will be people in care homes, and the programme for health and social care staff will also start next week.”
She said that the original vaccines were also still effective.
Dr Laidlaw added: “We will issue more information in due course about when other people can expect to be invited to attend clinics, and which clinic they will be invited to, for their Covid booster and flu vaccines.
“This will be prioritised with older people being called first, then younger people who are in risk groups, then younger people down to age 50.
“At the same time the childhood flu programme will be running in school and in GP practices (for pre school children).”
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