Covid: UK orders 60m extra Pfizer doses for booster jabs

An extra 60 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine have been ordered by the UK government as it puts together plans for a vaccination booster programme in the autumn.

It brings the total number of Pfizer doses ordered by the UK to 100 million.

The expectation is that the most vulnerable groups will be offered another jab before next winter.

Nearly two-thirds of UK adults have received one dose of a Covid vaccine with a quarter having had two.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told a Downing Street briefing the booster programme would "keep us safe and free here while we get this disease under control across the world".

The government said the additional Pfizer jabs will be used alongside other Covid vaccines for the booster programme.

It is one of three jabs authorised for use in the UK, alongside the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and one made by the US firm Moderna.

The news comes as new data from Public Health England showed that one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine reduces household transmission of the virus by up to half.

These extra supplies are not about speeding up rollout now - they are an insurance policy ahead of next winter to ensure the UK has enough supplies to offer people a booster jab.

But there is still much to be resolved about such a programme.

Who will get it, whether it will be given at the same time as the flu jab and how many doses will be needed has still to be decided.

But perhaps the biggest question of all is whether the current vaccines will need to be tweaked to tackle the new variants.

These extra Pfizer doses will be the same as the current jab that is being rolled out.

But the deal done for one of the other vaccines on order - CureVac - is for vaccine doses that can be specifically targeted at the variants.

The current thinking is that vaccines that are being used at the moment will offer good enough protection, certainly for adults considered not at high risk from Covid.