Covid booster available in Northern Ireland from 12 April
- Published
People over the age of 75 are among those who will be offered a Covid booster
A spring Covid-19 booster for people in Northern Ireland who are most at risk of serious illness from the disease will be available from 12 April.
The Department of Health has said the vaccine will be offered to people aged over 75, care home residents and people with a weakened immune system.
It is understood that about 190,000 people are eligible to receive the jab.
The booster will help to top up immunity and cut people's risk of becoming severely ill.
Four different vaccines - made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Sanofi/GSK and Novavax - are due to be used in the spring booster programme.
Most doses should protect against the Omicron variant as well as previous variants.
Last autumn frontline health and care workers, adults aged 50 and over and some carers and household contacts were also offered a booster dose.
Testing unchanged
Guidance about testing for Covid-19 in healthcare buildings and care homes is not due to change.
The Department of Health said it was "continuing to monitor the situation" and would make changes to recommendations on testing when it was deemed necessary.
On Friday it was announced that Covid-19 testing in England was being reduced.
Most staff and patients in hospitals and care homes in England will no longer be given swab tests, even if they have coronavirus symptoms.
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