Teenagers who have recently tested positive for coronavirus will have to wait longer for a vaccine after health officials said deferring the jab could help to reduce rare side effects.
Under-18s will now have to wait twelve weeks after catching coronavirus before having the jab, extended from the original four weeks.
The new advice will impact hundreds of thousands of teenagers and almost 800 school vaccine clinics planned for this week will be cancelled.
Coronavirus cases are particularly prevalent among school children and the latest ONS infection survey said that adults who lived with someone aged 16 years or under were more likely to test positive than any others.
People working in the education sector were also the most likely workers to test positive, with statisticians saying “this is likely related to the continuing higher infection levels among school-aged children”.
As of the end of last week, children aged 10 to 14 and 5 to 9 had the highest rates of cases of any age group. On 12 November, government data showed that 10 to 14-year-olds were recording 837.3 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people. The high case rates among teenagers will mean that many won’t be eligible for a jab until the end of term or next year.
Case rates among 40 to 44-year-olds were also quite high, with a case rate of 539.6 out of every 100,000.
Health chiefs said that the decision to defer the jab could help reduce the “very, very small” risk of heart inflammation after vaccination.
Because children usually only have mild Covid symptoms, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation feared that even rare side effects could outweigh the benefits.
The JCVI said that new UK data showed that the risk of heart inflammation was reduced if a longer gap was left between doses, with rates of around nine cases per million doses.
As a result, the health advisers recommended that vaccine second doses for those aged 16 and 17 should be offered at least 12 weeks after the first one and also that they should wait 12 weeks after a positive Covid test.
The UK Health Security Agency said that all under-18s should wait 12 weeks for their jab if they have tested positive for coronavirus. Head of immunisation, Mary Ramsay, said: “Leaving a longer interval between infection and vaccination will further reduce the already very small risk of myocarditis in younger age groups.”
