I'm 17 - when will I be jabbed? And other questions

It’s not yet clear how long protection from the Covid vaccine lasts, but experts think it should be many months.

There are provisional plans to give booster vaccine doses to some people ahead of winter to make sure they continue to have the best protection.

Doctors are focusing on several types of blood clots regarding the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

One that has attracted particular attention is a clot on the brain called Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis (CSVT).

It forms in large veins in the head - stopping blood from draining out of the brain. As a result, blood cells may break and leak into brain tissue - ultimately leading to a stroke.

CVSTs are more common, but still very rare, in younger women.

If you suspect you or someone else is having a stroke, you should call 999.

The UK’s medicines regulator - the MHRA - says anyone who has the following symptoms four or more days after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine should seek prompt medical advice: severe or persistent headache, blurred vision, chest pain, shortness of breath, swollen legs, persistent abdominal pain, unusual skin bruising, pinpoint spots (not including the injection site).

Most cases have been seen between four days and a few weeks after people have had their jab.

Medical experts in the UK suggest doctors should consider this rare condition as a possible diagnosis for anyone who has matching symptoms up to a month after they have had the vaccine.

If you had your vaccine three weeks ago, you should seek medical advice if you experience any of the symptoms listed above in the next week or so.

Yes. Allergy to penicillin is not listed as a clinical reason to avoid having either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the AstraZeneca-Oxford Covid-19 vaccine.

However, when you are invited for your Covid vaccine, you should discuss your allergies with healthcare staff to make sure there is no other reason to avoid it.

Although it’s been done quickly, this vaccine trial hasn’t skipped any of the usual steps.

The only difference is that some of the stages overlapped so, for example, phase three of the trial – when tens of thousands of people are given the vaccine – started while phase two, involving a few hundred people, was still going on.

Side effects usually show up quite quickly after vaccination and longer-term effects are extremely rare – much, much rarer than long-term side effects of the virus.

Usually vaccine trials are slowed down by long periods of waiting around, applying for permission, funding and resources.

It’s those elements that were sped up, because of the huge global interest in doing so.

It’s not clear yet how long immunity might last after vaccination.

It is possible that people will need to be vaccinated annually or every few years to have protection.

No, people in the UK are not being told they must have the vaccine.

However, those in the most at-risk groups (over-70s and care home residents), and people who work in care homes and for the NHS will be expected to have it - to protect themselves and the people they care for.

Making a vaccine mandatory is not usually recommended because it can lower confidence in the jab.

On balance, this is almost certainly unnecessary.

While hand washing is very important for personal hygiene, none of the advice from the world’s leading health bodies – the World Health Organization for example, the CDC in the US or the NHS in the UK – places any importance on hair washing one way or another.

It’s theoretically possible that you could catch the virus if someone sneezed on your hair and those droplets found their way to your eyes, nose or mouth (for instance if your hair fell over your face).

However, research suggests that while virus droplets can survive for a couple of hours on some non-porous surfaces such as steel, there are few – if any – cases of Covid which can be traced back to being transmitted in this way.

Mothers pass on protection from infection to their babies through their breast milk.

If your body is producing antibodies to fight the infection, these would be passed on through breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding mums should follow the same advice as anyone else over reducing risk - cover your mouth when you sneeze and cough, throw away used tissues straight away and wash hands frequently, while trying to avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands.