You may have seen the news that the NHS is going to invite young people aged 16 and 17 to receive a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination, following advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The first dose will provide 80% protection against hospitalisation and protection could be even higher as younger people respond better to vaccines and some will have already had the COVID-19 infection, meaning they will have an even better response to a first dose.
We will be inviting young people in this age group to receive their vaccination as soon as possible – you do not need to contact us. Parental consent will not be required to be vaccinated. The vaccine they receive will be the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Further work on effectiveness and safety in this age group is being done before the JCVI provides further guidance on whether a second vaccine dose should be offered to healthy 16 to 17 year-olds later to increase the level of protection and contribute towards longer term protection. The NHS will continue to offer two doses to young people aged 16 and 17 who are already eligible as they are at higher risk of serious COVID-19, or who are household contacts of individuals (adults or children) who are immunosuppressed.
The following groups of children and young people are also eligible, following previous JCVI advice:
- 17-year-olds that are within 3 months of turning 18;
- 12-15-year olds ‘at risk’ with the underlying health conditions specified below:
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- severe neuro-disabilities,
- Down’s Syndrome,
- underlying conditions resulting in immunosuppression, and
- those with profound and multiple learning disabilities, severe learning disabilities or who are on the learning disability register
- Children aged 12 years and older without underlying medical conditions who are household contacts of individuals (adults or children) who are immune suppressed.
If your child aged 12 to 15 and is in one of the eligible groups, we will contact you by early September to invite you to book appointments for them for the vaccination.
Last Updated on 11 August 2021
