United Kingdom will offer COVID-19 booster shots to those over 50

Residents over the age of 50 and other vulnerable people in the United Kingdom will be able to get a COVID-19 booster shot as soon as next week.

The U.K. on Tuesday announced a third dose of the coronavirus vaccine will be made available to those over a certain age, a day after the Conservative government also backed plans to roll out a single COVID-19 shot to children between the ages of 12 and 15 years old

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization has recommended the additional jab also be provided to health care workers, people with underlying health conditions and those who live with people whose immune systems are compromised. That means an estimated 30 million people will be eligible for the booster shots, intended to provide further protection against the fast-spreading virus

Those who are eligible must wait six months after receiving their second jab before getting the booster, officials said.

“The result of this vaccination campaign is we have one of the most free societies and one of the most open economies in Europe,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters on Tuesday. “That’s why we’re now sticking with our strategy.”

Johnson, citing a spike in COVID-19 cases fueled by the delta variant, added that “our position today is actually more challenging.”

He continued: “But, in many other crucial respects, the British people, all of us collectively and individually, are incomparably better placed to fight the disease.”

While the number of people now contracting COVID-19 across the nation is significantly higher than this time last year — the U.K. is averaging about 30,000 new infections a day — the nation’s vaccine drive has significantly reduced the number of people who require treatment as well as those dying from the disease.

In recent months, the British government has fought against re-introducing further virus restrictions for England despite the spread, but Johnson warned they could again be implemented if hospitals begin to feel strain in the coming weeks.

The number of people in U.K. hospitals with COVID-19 stands at around 8,500, way down from the near 40,000 that were hospitalized earlier this year during a catastrophic second wave of the pandemic.

“When you’ve got a large proportion, as we have now, with immunity, then smaller changes can make a bigger difference and give us the confidence that we don’t have to go back to the lockdowns of the past,” Johnson said. “In the meantime, we are confident in the vaccines that have made such a difference to our lives.”