A spring COVID-19 booster vaccination will be offered to those at higher risk of severe COVID-19, the Department of Health has announced.
Those aged 75 and over, residents in care homes as well as anyone over the age of 5 who is immunosuppressed are among the cohort who will be offered a further booster in line with advice issued by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI):
Commenting on the announcement, Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Michael McBride said:
“Roll out of the latest booster campaign is due to commence in mid April and run until the end of June and cover a population of almost 190,000 individuals.
“The programme will include those who turn 75 years old by 30th June 2023 who will be eligible for a vaccination at any point during the spring campaign. Those who are admitted to an older adult care home or become immunosuppressed by 30 June 2023 will be considered eligible as well.”
As with earlier stages of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, for the spring booster programme all care homes will be paired with a community pharmacy who will attend the home and offer vaccination to all residents.
GPs will be asked to invite their eligible patients aged 75+ and those who are immunocompromised to attend for vaccination.
In addition to being invited by their own GP, those aged 75+ or immunocompromised individuals will also have the option to receive the vaccine via a participating community pharmacy.
Trusts will play a much reduced role in the spring programme, mainly vaccinating eligible housebound patients from lists supplied by GPs. Trusts will also vaccinate those immunocompromised individuals aged 5 to under 18 years of age, identified by their GP.
Since the vaccination programme was first rolled out in Northern Ireland in December 2020 close to 4.5 million vaccines have been administered.