Covid: People over 45 can now book vaccine

The NHS booking website has updated to say that people aged 45 and over can now book a vaccine.

It signals the start of ‘Phase 2’ of the vaccination programme – which involves offering vaccines to healthy adults under the age of 50.

Until now the NHS in England had been focusing on offering vaccines to those at highest risk including people over the age of 50 and people deemed to be “clinically extremely vulnerable”.

It comes after all adults in the UK aged over 50 have now been offered a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

People over the age of 45 can now book their Covid-19 jab

Boris Johnson hailed another “hugely significant milestone” in the programme to protect the country against the disease.

It means the Government has met its target of offering the jab to all of its top nine priority groups, including the clinically vulnerable and health and social care workers, three days ahead of its target date of April 15.

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In a statement, Mr Johnson said that they remained on course to offer a first jab to all adults in the UK by the end of July.

“We have now passed another hugely significant milestone in our vaccine programme by offering jabs to everyone in the nine highest risk groups,” he said.

“That means more than 32 million people have been given the precious protection vaccines provide against Covid 19.

“I want to thank everyone involved in the vaccine rollout which has already saved many thousands of lives.

“We will now move forward with completing essential second doses and making progress towards our target of offering all adults a vaccine by the end of July.”