Patients aged 36-37 will become eligible for their Covid vaccination from tomorrow.
Patients aged 37 will be invited to book their vaccination online tomorrow at 7am, and patients aged 36 from Wednesday.
Using the national booking service, they will be able to arrange an appointment at an NHS Vaccination Centre, pharmacy or GP vaccination site, NHS England said.
It added that the expansion to the next age group comes as:
- over 930,000 vaccination appointments have been made to date by 38-39-years-olds, who became eligible last Thursday;
- more than three out of four people aged 40-49 have received a first dose;
- over 30 million people in total have had a first dose; and
- over 20 million have had a second dose.
The news comes as second doses are being brought forward from 12 to eight weeks for all patients in cohorts 1-9, to ensure they are protected amid worrying spread of the Indian Covid variant.
The Government has also sent extra vaccine doses to affected areas. This includes Blackburn with Darwen, which is now offering vaccination to over-18s under certain eligibility criteria – having been stopped from vaccinating all over-18s.
GP sites have been instructed to offer the Pfizer vaccine instead of the AstraZeneca one to patients aged 39 and under, due to the risk of extremely rare blood clotting events.
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