If you’re a frontline worker in the NHS, you are more likely to be exposed to COVID-19 at work.
Getting your COVID-19 vaccination as soon as you can, should protect you and may help to protect your family and those you may care for. The COVID-19 vaccine should help reduce the rates of serious illness and save lives and will therefore reduce pressure on the NHS and social care services.
The NHS is starting to offer COVID-19 booster vaccinations to help provide extra protection for those at greatest risk from the virus this winter.
In line with the recommendations of the JCVI, these will be offered to:
- people who live or work in a care home for older adults
- frontline health and social care workers
- people aged 50 years or over
- people aged 5 – 49 who are immunosuppressed
- people aged 5 – 49 years with underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk of severe COVID-19
- pregnant women
- people aged 16 – 49 who are carers
- people aged 5 – 49 who live with someone who is immunosuppressed
If you are eligible for a booster, you will be contacted by the NHS when it is your turn e.g. by your GP practice, the NHS National Booking Service or your NHS employer. Those at greatest risk will be invited first, with vaccinations for care home residents starting from 5 September and for those aged 75 and over or who are immunosuppressed from 12 September.
Please do not contact your GP practice for an appointment unless you have received an invitation, you will be contacted when it is your turn to have your booster.
If you are eligible for a booster, please help to keep yourself and those around you safe by getting vaccinated when you are invited. For more information about the autumn boosters and the COVID vaccination programme you can visit www.westyorkshire.icb.nhs.uk/covidvaccination
If you have not yet completed your vaccination course, you can still get whichever jab you need – book an appointment using the online National Booking Service or by calling 119. Calls are free of charge and lines are open 8am-8pm Monday – Friday and 8am-4pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
Please visit NHS Wakefield Clinical Commissioning Group’s website for full FAQs.
If you are a member of staff at the Trust you can also find out about booster vaccinations on the staff intranet.
The government has confirmed that no Covishield vaccines have been administered in the UK. All AstraZeneca vaccines given in the UK are the same product and appear on the NHS COVID Pass as Vaxzevria. The European Medicines Agency has authorised this brand of the vaccine and it is therefore recognised by the European Union.
The confusion arose because the AstraZeneca vaccine is manufactured under different commercial names and licences. Although this is the same vaccine, each licence has to be approved separately by the relevant authority in each country. The Covishield licence has not yet been authorised by the UK regulator, the MHRA, or the European Medicines Agency so this is why it is not used in the UK or accepted for travel to the EU.
Some batch numbers of the Vaxiveria vaccines were mistakenly listed as being Covishield by the Maltese authorities, which led to some people being refused entry to Malta. The government has confirmed that Malta has now amended their travel advice and that the NHS Covid Pass will be accepted as valid evidence for entry. This is set out on the Maltese government’s website at (https://foreignandeu.gov.mt/en/Pages/Travel-Advice.aspx).
Information on how to get an online or paper version of the NHS COVID Pass is available on the NHS website.
Evidence shows that the second dose not only increases your protection against Covid but gives you longer-lasting protection so it is very important that you have both doses. Covid-19 can make you very seriously ill and have long-term effects on your health so getting the maximum protection possible will give you the best chance of avoiding this. For example, having two doses has been shown to be over 90%
effective in preventing hospitalisation.
The JCVI advice is that second doses should be given 8 to 12 weeks after the first dose. This takes into account the latest evidence, which indicates that a gap of 8 to 12 weeks is likely to provide better, longer-term protection than a shorter interval.
In response to the rising number of cases of the Delta variant, second doses are now being brought forward to 8 weeks for all adults. This is to ensure everyone has the strongest possible protection from the Delta variant of the virus at the earliest opportunity possible and builds on the earlier JCVI recommendation that second doses for people at greatest risk from Covid-19 should be brought forward to 8 weeks.