UK offers booster jab as COVID variant emerges

In response to the emergence of a new COVID-19 variant, the United Kingdom's National Health Service, or NHS, has brought forward its combined winter flu and COVID-19 vaccination program from its previously scheduled start next month.

Following guidance from the United Kingdom Health Security Agency, or UKHSA, the adult COVID-19 and flu vaccination program began on Monday, prioritizing those at greatest risk, in light of the new COVID-19 variant named BA.2.86.

Identified through genetic sequencing, variant BA.2.86 was first reported in Denmark in July and subsequently in a number of countries globally. Last month, the World Health Organization announced it was designating BA.2.86 a "variant under monitoring".

In its latest BA.2.86 analysis, the UKHSA said 34 confirmed cases of BA.2.86 had been identified in England as of Sept 4. Of these, five were hospitalized and no deaths due to COVID-19 have been reported among the cases.

Of the 34 cases, 28 were from a single outbreak at a care home in Norfolk in the East of England, where specialists from UKHSA have been working with local authorities to offer infection control advice and support.

Speaking to the BBC's Today radio program, Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at the UKHSA, said there was concern about the number of mutations in this new virus variant compared to others.

"It may evade the immune system, which was why the vaccine program was brought forward on a precautionary basis, so that we could boost the immunity of those most at risk," she said.

She emphasized the main reason for advancing the vaccine rollout by a month was to protect "those most likely to have a hospitalization event".

Hopkins noted that "the level of immunity in the general population was very good", and therefore "those whose immunity wanes the fastest, older people and at-risk groups", were being offered the booster vaccine first.

The UKHSA stressed that older people and those in clinical risk groups remained at the highest risk of serious illness from COVID-19, noting that more eligible groups will be invited for booster jabs during the coming weeks.

In a statement last week, Renu Bindra, incident director at UKHSA, said: "While BA.2.86 has a significant number of mutations to the viral genome compared to other currently circulating COVID-19 variants, the data so far is too limited to draw firm conclusions about the impact this will have on the transmissibility, severity or immune escape properties of the virus.

"It is clear that there is some degree of widespread community transmission, both in the UK and globally, and we are working to ascertain the full extent of this."

By May 2023, according to official data, the UK had administered nearly 176 million COVID-19 vaccines, with about 88 percent of people aged 12 and older in the UK population fully vaccinated, and 93 percent of people having received at least one dose.