The spring Covid vaccination programme gets under way today, targeting the people most at risk of serious illness.
There are no changes to the eligible cohorts for the 2026/27 season compared to last year:
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- Adults aged 75 years and over;
- Residents in a care home for older adults;
- Individuals aged six months and over who are immunosuppressed.
The eligibility is the same across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The National Booking Service (NBS) opened to the public last week, with Community Pharmacy England (CPE) advising pharmacies to load their intended appointments in advance so people could book available slots as soon as it went live.
Pharmacy owners participating in the spring Covid vaccination programme will need access to the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP) to order Covid vaccines.
The spring vaccination programme comes as a new Covid variant, BA.3.2, is predicted to become the dominant variant in the UK, according to Professor Ravi Gupta, a leading microbiologist at Cambridge University who is analysing the new strain.
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While there are no signs that BA.3.2 causes more severe disease than other Covid variants, scientists have expressed concern that current Covid-19 vaccines may be less effective because it has developed a significant number of mutations.
Nevertheless, experts emphasise that vaccination still offers significant protection against severe disease.
NHS England has published a guide to support vaccination sites delivering Covid vaccinations this spring, outlining the correct operational processes, eligible groups, system usage, supply arrangements, and payment mechanisms.
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It has also authorised and published the Patient Group Direction (PGD) and the Vaccine Group Directions (VGD) for use in the Spring 2026 COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
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