Gillian Keegan grilled by Susanna Reid over booster messaging

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Under new plans to tackle a potential fresh wave of coronavirus infections driven by the new variant of concern, Omicron, booster vaccines will be offered to all over-18s in the UK. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation made a series of recommendations to expand the booster rollout, reducing the minimum gap between the second vaccine dose and booster should be from six to three months.

How can you get your booster?

If it’s been more than three months since you got your second jab, you’ll be eligible for your booster now.

You can wait to be contacted, or – depending on where you live in the UK – book online, or call 119.

You can head here to book online – note the NHS website doesn’t yet reflect the changes in timeframe, so you might need to be patient, this is a huge challenge for the NHS to roll out quickly.

Can you go to a walk-in?

The NHS ‘grab a jab’ scheme has seen dozens of walk-in centres pop up for eligible people to get their vaccines.

Currently, the advice states only people aged over 40, the vulnerable, or health and social care workers should use a walk-in for boosters, at least 182 days after their second dose.

However, anyone over the age of 12 can use walk-in centres for first doses, and 18 or over for second doses.

The advice for walk-in boosters is expected to change soon as the NHS rolls out the quicker boosters, with anyone over 18 able to go to a walk-in centre.

You don’t need to be registered with a GP to go to a walk-in centre.

Note that if you’ve tested positive for Covid, you need to wait at least four weeks (28 days) before getting your booster.

This starts from the date you had symptoms, or the date of the positive test if you did not have any symptoms.

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Where is your nearest walk-in venue?

The easiest way to find your nearest walk-in is using the NHS service here or use the tool below in this story. 

You can enter your postcode and see your nearest centre.

You will be offered either a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine booster, regardless of which jab you initially received.

The latest data shows more than 17.5 million booster jabs have been given in the UK, and this is expected to increase rapidly in the coming months.

You can use the vaccination finder here: 

Dr Nikki Kanani, GP and deputy lead for the NHS covid-19 vaccination programme said: “NHS staff are making it as easy as possible for people to get their top-up vaccination, and people can now go online, find their nearest site and go and get their booster without delay.

“The booster is not just a nice to have – it is really important protection ahead of what we know will be a challenging winter.

“So if you are eligible, please do check the site finder and go get your jab.”

All frontline NHS staff in England will have to be fully vaccinated against Covid by April 1.

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