To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to young people who may be under the age of 18 when going to university in September 2021, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of offering those young people covid-19 vaccines if they are over the age of 16.
Answered on
20 July 2021
The Government has accepted the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advice that young people, including students, may be offered a COVID-19 vaccination within three months of turning 18 years old. The second dose of the vaccine would be offered eight weeks after the first dose.
Students over the age of 16 years old with underlying health conditions that put them at risk of serious outcomes from COVID-19 have been offered both doses of vaccine as part of phase one of the vaccine deployment programme. Age is assessed to be the strongest factor linked to mortality, morbidity and hospitalisations.