One million in NI offered flu and Covid vaccines

More than a million people in Northern Ireland will be offered vaccines against Covid-19 and flu this winter.

The Public Health Agency programme will be rolled out from this month until early December.

Most vaccines will be provided by GPs and community pharmacies but health trusts and schools will also be offering vaccinations.

Each group has their own arrangement for inviting eligible groups and booking vaccine appointments.

Many people will be familiar with how they received their flu vaccine in the past and the PHA said that in most cases the Covid-19 autumn booster will be offered through the same route.

Parents of children in primary one to year 12 should look out for the consent forms coming home in schoolbags, said the PHA.

Delay resolved

Each trust will have specific arrangements for clinics that are only for frontline HSC workers and a small number of other eligible groups, such as those under the age of 18 and pregnant women.

The PHA said a small number of vaccinations planned by some of the trusts had been temporarily delayed but that had since been resolved.

Eligible groups for the flu vaccine in 2022 and 2023 are:

• those aged 50 years and over (by 31 March 2023)

• those aged six months to two years, and 16 to 49 years in clinical risk groups

• pregnant women

• all preschool children aged two or over on 1 September 2022

• all primary and secondary (up to year 12) school children

• those in long-stay residential care homes

• carers

• household contact of immunosuppressed individuals

• frontline health and social care workers

Eligible groups for the Covid-19 vaccine in 2022 and 2023 are:

• all adults aged 50 and over (by 31 March 2023)

• those aged five to 49 years in a clinical risk group

• pregnant women

• residents in a care home for older adults, and staff working in care homes for older adults

• those aged five to 49 years who are household contacts of people with immunosuppression

• those aged 16 to 49 years who are carers

• frontline health and social care workers

First, second and booster doses of the Covid-19 vaccine are still available to those who have not yet taken up the offer of vaccination.