Patient Communication – COVID 19 Booster:

Posted on November 18th, 2021

17.09.2021

 The primary objective of a 2021 COVID-19 booster programme is to maintain protection against severe COVID-19 disease, specifically hospitalisation and deaths, over winter 2021 to 2022.  This is exceptional advice aimed at maintaining protection in those most vulnerable, and to protect the NHS.

Guidance has now been published in relation to the administration of Phase 3 booster vaccinations for COVID-19.  Definitive guidance is that boosters are to be given to patients in Priority Groups 1-9 as we did with vaccination 1 and 2 and not to be given earlier than 6 months after completion of the primary vaccine course.

Priority Groups 1-9:

• Living in residential care homes for adults
• Everyone aged over 50
• Frontline health and social care workers
• All those aged 16-49 years with underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk of severe COVID-19
• Adult household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals

Please do not contact the surgery for information on the COVID booster programme – this is all the information we currently have and will be communicating with our patients as soon as we have definitive news on vaccine delivery and we will pull out all the stops to schedule clinics as soon as possible for the priority groups.  We have been advised we can administer the flu vaccine and the covid booster together which will enable us to roll out booster programme alongside the flu vaccination programme where possible.  However, we do not yet have the booster vaccine available nor has full delivery guidance been updated so patients receiving the flu vaccination this weekend will NOT be offered a COVID booster at the clinic.

We will send out further communication as we receive further information.