Covid-19 jabs “to be offered to secondary school pupils from September”

Children aged 12 and above could be offered the jab at the start of the next school year

Plans being developed by the NHS could reportedly see secondary school pupils offered Covid-19 vaccinations as soon as September. A report in the Sunday Times claims officials from the health service are working on plans which would see children aged 12 and over offered a single dose of the Pfizer jab when the next academic year begins after the summer holidays. The report says it had confirmed the plans with sources within the government and NHS but that they are dependent on advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which is expected later in the summer.

"We need to be in a position to immunise children, particularly teenagers, promptly and efficiently if we need to," Professor Adam Finn, a member of the committee, told the Times.

"It is extremely important that education in the next academic year is not disrupted in any way."

He added: "We should only be doing vaccine programmes when we need to do them."

Since the start of the pandemic, data has shown that children are unlikely to fall seriously ill with Covid-19. They do, however, play a role in  transmitting the virus, hence the plans to vaccinate. Trials of the Pfizer vaccine in children aged 12 to 15 showed 100% efficacy and that it triggered a strong immune response from those receiving it. Government figures show nearly 15 million people in the UK have received both doses of their vaccine. A total of 49,287,257 jabs have been given so far, with 14,940,984 of those second doses. The nation's plan to return to normal took another stride forward over the weekend, when clubbers were welcomed back to mask-free events in Liverpool on Friday and Saturday.