The Government said that pensioners aged 65 to 74 will no longer be able to for a free jab. This amounts to 6 million people, of which just over half took up the offer last Autumn.
However, one million immunosuppressed people with weak immune systems will continue to be eligible.
Across the autumn and winter, a peak of 58 per cent of those aged 70-74-years-old had been vaccinated of the 65-69-year-old cohort, a peak of 48 per cent was achieved between October 2024 and February 2025. In October 2024, cases per 100,000 peaked at 6.38 per 100,000 across a seven-day period before falling to 1.48 in February.
Taken together with the rapid spread of the highly-contagious XFG, or Stratus, variant, which now accounts for the majority of Covid infections in the UK – and waning immunity from previous infections and jabs among most of the population – scientists believe it is only a matter of time before we see a new wave.
“The Government’s decision to restrict the free Autumn Covid booster to people over the age of 75 and those who are immunosuppressed is very shortsighted,” Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick University, told The i Paper.
“While targeting the most vulnerable is likely to prevent a surge in hospitalisations, it ignores the burden of infection in the general population, the impact of sickness on work and school attendance, and the increased risk of infection causing long-term effects.
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Covid cases have been much lower this year than for most of the pandemic – and, despite a steady increase in recent weeks, they are still well below the level they were at most of last year.
The latest UKHSA data shows that in the week to Friday August 1, the proportion of people in hospital with symptoms who tested positive for Covid in England increased by 17 per cent to 7.3 per cent.
But they say that the measure – known as the positivity rate – is the best indicator we have in the summer (when population surveillance of Covid ceases) and is seen as giving a reasonable sense of general trends.
“It’s very concerning that these groups are no longer to be offered free Autumn boosters,” Simon Williams, a behavioural scientist and public health expert at Swansea University, told The i Paper.
Professor Paul Hunter, of University of East Anglia, said he “suspects we will see some increase in cases as we move towards the end of the year but I don’t know how big this will be.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This decision is based on expert advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which continuously monitor and evaluate emerging scientific evidence on COVID-19 vaccines.
“We encourage anyone who is eligible for COVID-19 vaccination to come forward for vaccination this autumn.”
The dates have not been announced yet for this year’s Autumn booster campaign but last year it started on October 3.
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