AN announcement about whether Jersey will follow the UK in moving its Covid-19 autumn booster vaccination programme forward is expected to be made next week.
The UK Health Security Agency recently confirmed vaccinations would be available in England from 11 September instead of a later date originally scheduled for October.
The news followed concern over the new BA.2.86 variant of Covid, which is being closely monitored by scientists around the world.
Although the strain could be more transmissible, experts have said it does not appear to be more dangerous.
Director of public health professor Peter Bradley recently explained that the international concern was a result of the genetic make-up of the variant, which marked ‘quite a big difference’ to what had been seen previously.
However, he said that the consensus among UK-based and international health authorities was that vaccinations would still be ‘extremely likely’ to prevent severe disease.
Guernsey has announced the details of its autumn booster programme, with invitation letters to be sent in batches to eligible islanders from Monday.
This will include adults aged 65 years and over, as well as care home residents and frontline health and social care workers, among other groups.
The JEP contacted the government press office to ask if Jersey would follow the UK in bringing forward its autumn programme by a month and was told that an announcement was expected next week.
