Autumn Booster Update

The Autumn booster programme began on 12 September 2022 for those aged 75 plus, and vulnerable patients. It was rolled out to those aged 65 to 74 from 26 September, and to those aged 50 to 64 from 14 October.

As of 9 November, 73% of over 65s in England have received an Autumn booster this year.

Booster take-up has been notably lower in London than other parts of England. Less than half of over 50s in the capital have received a dose. Uptake is 32% below the rest of the country.

Only 40% of those aged 50 to 64 have received their Autumn booster. Take-up in this age range has been noticeably lower than for other age groups. That’s despite the booster having been available for almost a month.

Take-up for those aged 75+ has been similar to the Spring booster (78%). Recent weeks have seen a steady decrease in the number of new over 65s being vaccinated. We expect the take-up rate among over 75s to level off at or just below 80% in the next couple of weeks.

It has been very evident from early in the pandemic that, rather than eliminating it, we were going to have to “learn to live with COVID-19”. The NHS has implemented vaccination programmes as part of this plan. Ongoing concerted effort is required to increase uptake across regions and age groups to ensure the most vulnerable populations are adequately protected. This includes ethnic minorities and those living in more deprived areas, groups which saw lower vaccine uptake in previous waves.

All data from https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/vaccinations?areaType=nation&areaName=England