Over-70s could get booster Covid jab from September - vaccines minister
Covid: England lockdown easing still on course, says PM
(about 2 hours later)
People aged over 70 could start receiving Covid booster jabs from September to protect them from new variants, the vaccines minister has said.
Boris Johnson has said the roadmap for easing England's coronavirus lockdown is still on track, even as a third wave of infections hits Europe.
Nadhim Zahawi told the Daily Telegraph the first doses would go to the over-70s, health and social care staff and the clinically extremely vulnerable.
The PM said he will soon "be able to go to the barbers" and eventually "drink a pint... in the pub".
Scientists have been developing booster jabs to combat new Covid variants.
Outdoor gatherings are allowed from Monday, with more restrictions due to be eased on 12 April.
More than 29 million people in the UK have now had a first dose of a vaccine.
Mr Johnson added that nothing in the data dissuaded him "from continuing along our roadmap to freedom".
Mr Zahawi said deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam thought "that if we are going to see a requirement for a booster jab to protect the most vulnerable, [it] would be around September".
Speaking at the Conservatives' virtual spring forum on Saturday, Mr Johnson said: "In just a few days' time, I'm finally going to be able to go to the barbers.
Those first booster jabs would be given to those in the top four priority groups of the vaccine rollout.
"But more important than that, I'm going to be able to go down the street and cautiously, but irreversibly, I'm going to drink a pint of beer in the pub.
When will I get the Covid vaccine?
"And as things stand, I can see absolutely nothing in the data to dissuade me from continuing along our roadmap to freedom, unlocking our economy and getting back to the life we love."
PM: Covid third wave will 'wash up on our shores'
From Monday, people will be allowed to meet outside - including in private gardens - in groups of up to six, or as two households.
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Shops, hairdressers, gyms and outdoor hospitality venues are due to reopen on 12 April.
Mr Zahawi also told the newspaper that drive-through jab centres could be set up across the UK in the next few months to tackle vaccine hesitancy among younger groups.
He said: "We did some fantastic pilots of drive-in jabs that went really well. And again, as we go down the cohorts in the current deployment you're going to see more of that.
"It's a great way as you do the under-50s, the under-40s, under-30s. Convenience becomes a much greater tool to deploy because you want to make sure for those people, where we think there may be greater hesitancy, we make it as convenient as we can make it."
Mr Zahawi also told the Telegraph that the government was hoping to have up to eight vaccines available by the autumn - with several made in the UK - including one that could guard against three different variants via a single jab.
The UK is currently using two vaccines - developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech - to protect people against Covid-19. A third - the Moderna vaccine - has been approved by the UK's medicines watchdog.
All have been shown to be effective at preventing people from becoming seriously ill and dying from Covid.
The Oxford vaccine offers a good level of protection against the "Kent" variant now dominant in the UK. Early research on other vaccines, including Pfizer, suggest they also protect against this variant.
There are concerns vaccines may not work as well against variants first spotted in South Africa and Brazil, and some UK variants too, but they can be updated.
Why do new variants of Covid-19 keep appearing? Laura Foster explains
Meanwhile, the government's latest vaccination figures show that more than 29 million people in the UK have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, with more than three million of them having had a second dose.
Despite ministers warning that the UK's vaccine supplies will fall in April, No 10 says all adults in the UK will still receive a first Covid jab by the end of July.
The unveiling of the booster plan comes amid concern over a third wave of coronavirus currently sweeping across much of mainland Europe, where the vaccine rollout has happened at a slower pace than in the UK.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned earlier this week that the effects of the spike in infections would "wash up on our shores" from Europe.
The situation is still tense in Europe over vaccine exports, with France accusing the UK of "blackmail" over its handling of the issue.
France has called for the European Union to implement tougher export controls as the bloc struggles with its sluggish rollout of vaccines.
The EU is concerned that the UK has had an unfair advantage in its contracts signed with vaccine manufacturers, particularly AstraZeneca.
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