NHS booking opens for life-saving flu and COVID-19 vaccinations
Thursday, 10 October 2024
We are encouraging residents and those most at risk of getting seriously ill from flu and COVID-19 to get “winter ready” and get their free Flu and Covid-19 vaccinations.
Anyone eligible can book their vaccination at a pharmacy via the NHS website, by downloading the NHS App, or by calling 119 for free if they can’t get online. Getting vaccinated against both viruses are two of the most important things you can do to protect your own wellbeing and those around you.
Catching both viruses over the winter increases the risk of serious illness. The vaccinations, which are now available, provide vital protection to keep people from developing serious illnesses and ending up in hospital during busy winter months.
For the first time, the NHS is also offering vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a common cause of coughs and colds that can be dangerous to older people and young children. The jab, introduced earlier this month, is available to those aged 75 to 79 and is being offered to pregnant women from 28 weeks to protect their child.
Parents and carers of 2 and 3 years are also urged to book their children in for a flu vaccine offered by a nasal spray without needing an injection. Parents concerned about the pork content in the nasal spray can choose the flu injection as an alternative. Find out more on the NHS website.
For those adults eligible for both flu and COVID-19 vaccines, the NHS will make them available at the same time, giving the option to get protection from both viruses in one visit. However, it is more effective for people to have the RSV vaccination on a different day from any flu or COVID-19 vaccinations.
The NHS is offering free flu and COVID-19 vaccines to the following eligible people
Those eligible for a flu jab are:
- all adults aged 65 years and over
- those aged 18 years to under 65 years in clinical risk groups
- residents and staff in care homes for older adults
- carers in receipt of carer’s allowance, or those who are the main carer of an elderly or disabled person
- close contacts of immunocompromised individuals
- frontline health and care workers in a social care setting without an employer-led occupational health scheme including those working for a registered residential care or nursing home, registered domiciliary care providers, voluntary managed hospice providers and those that are employed by those who receive direct payments (personal budgets) or Personal Health budgets, such as Personal Assistants
Those eligible for an autumn COVID-19 booster are:
- adults aged 65 years and over
- residents in a care home for older adults
- individuals aged 6 months to 64 years in a clinical risk group (as defined in tables 3 or 4 in the COVID-19 chapter of the Green Book)
- frontline NHS health and social care workers and those working in care homes for older people
- pregnant women
- all children aged 2 or 3 years on 31 August 2024
- primary school aged children (from Reception to Year 6)
- secondary school aged children (from Year 7 to Year 11)
- all children in clinical risk groups aged from 6 months to less than 18 years
Councillor Mark Smith, Executive Member for Adult Social Care and Health said:
The flu and COVID-19 vaccines can be life-saving and are the best defences against these viruses – and it takes just a few minutes to book online or via the NHS App or 119, so I would urge everyone eligible to do so, to protect themselves and people around them. We know that these vaccinations help more people keep well and stay out of hospital during the winter months when the NHS is under a lot of pressure. So, I would really urge everyone eligible to get vaccinated as soon as they are invited and help us create a safer and healthier community.
For more information on winter health and vaccinations please visit the NHS website section for winter vaccinations and winter health.