Booster programme begins as NHS starts giving third COVID jabs
The NHS has started rolling out COVID-19 booster jabs.
Over 50s, people in care homes, frontline health and social care workers and vulnerable people between 16 and 49 are among those who will be offered a third dose.
At least six months must have passed since the second jab.
Hospital hubs began giving third doses to health and social care workers on Thursday, NHS England said, with other eligible people now being identified.
The first-choice booster is the Pfizer vaccine or alternatively a half-dose of a Moderna jab
GP vaccination services will follow in the coming days and the full rollout will start next week as more vaccination centres and pharmacy centres finish final checks.
NHS England said people would be contacted by their GP or the National Booking Service when they become eligible.
One of the first to get a third jab was Catherine Cargill, a maternity support worker at Croydon University Hospital.
She said it would enable her to stay protected and “make sure I can carry on working, I can carry on spending time with my family, and so I can carry on with my studies”.
Ms Cargill added: “I would definitely want to encourage you to get your booster shot when you are invited to do that.”
Nikki Kanani, deputy lead for the vaccination programme, said the NHS would contact people when it is their turn.
“Now that the decision has been taken by the JCVI and once the relevant checks are in place, the NHS will invite you for your booster vaccination,” she said.
“There is no need to contact the NHS – we will be in touch with you when it is your turn to get your booster vaccine – at least six months on since your last dose.”
Mel Whiteley was also among those to get her third jab on Thursday
About 4.5 million people will be eligible in the coming weeks – and care home residents and staff are being prioritised to ensure they are offered the booster by the start of November.
NHS England said some in the original nine priority groups would not become eligible until the New Year.
It comes after the the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) backed the booster programme on Tuesday.
The expert panel said the first-choice booster should be the Pfizer vaccine, or alternatively a half-dose of a Moderna jab as it works just as well.
JCVI chair Professor Wei Shen Lim said that the booster advice was just for this winter and younger people might not need a booster, but that advice would be issued in due course.
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Over-50s to be offered COVID booster jabs
In a statement, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: “It is brilliant to see that the first booster jabs are being rolled out today – thanks to the phenomenal efforts of the NHS who continue to work tirelessly to help us fight COVID-19 and protect the most vulnerable.”
He urged anyone who’s eligible to come forward when invited ahead of the winter months, when infections and hospitalisations are likely to increase.
The government has also said that all healthy 12 to 15-year-olds will be offered a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine, with that programme to start next week.
Rich countries administering third jabs has attracted some controversy given that many developing nations still have low rates of people who are double-vaccinated.
The head of the World Health Organisation has said giving boosters to more than just vulnerable people was “really not right”.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said countries should think twice before doing so, noting there was still not enough evidence to show that booster jabs are required.
A judo Olympian has said her family is “devastated” after the discovery of body in the search for her missing brother.
Lubjana Piovesana, 28, appealed for help to find her younger sibling, Luis, 26, on Saturday. He had not been seen since the early hours of Friday morning.
A body was found in the River Frome near Napier Road in Eastville, Bristol, at around 6pm today, Avon and Somerset Police said.
Formal identification is yet to take place, the force added.
In a post on Instagram, Ms Piovesana wrote: “Hello everyone, Luis has been found.
“We are completely devastated but he has passed away.
“I am grateful for everyone’s support. And I am so sorry this happened.
“Luis was my little brother and loved by everyone. I wish he could have seen the love from everyone. He will be remembered by us all.”
The post was signed off with a dove emoji.
Luis Piovesana did not have any money or his mobile phone with him when he went missing, police said. Pics: Avon & Somerset Police
Mr Piovesana was last seen at around 3am on Friday at the Eastgate retail park, which is less than a 10-minute walk away from where the body was found.
He had travelled there by taxi from a venue in Little Ann Street, St Jude’s, a 10-minute drive away.
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The 26-year-old’s family spent the weekend searching for him, and asked people to check their sheds and gardens.
His partner, Laurin Bohler, said loved ones had travelled from Birmingham to help.
Mounted officers and police drones were also involved in the investigation.
Ms Piovesana competed for Team GB before switching to the Austrian team, and defeated British competitor Lucy Renshall in the women’s -63kg judo event at the Paris Olympics last year.
A man has been jailed for life for murdering his son’s girlfriend after she returned home from the school run.
Officers from Dyfed-Powys Police were called to an address on Bigyn Road in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, on 5 July last year.
Sophie Evans, 30, had sustained 72 separate injuries on the outside of the body, “all but three of them new injuries”.
Richard Jones, who is now 50, believed he was “being taken advantage of financially” by Ms Evans and his son, with whom she was in a relationship.
While the purpose of Jones’s visit was “purely normal”, he confronted her on that morning about his suspicions and Ms Evans’s reaction was such that Jones “lost [his] temper”.
He subjected Ms Evans to “gross violence” before ultimately strangling her and leaving the property to run errands, including ordering a new bank card and buying pastries from a bakery.
Richard Jones. Pic: Dyfed-Powys Police
‘Last time on their school run’
During sentencing on Monday, the defendant kept his head bowed for most of the hearing.
He will have to serve at least 20 years behind bars before he can be considered for release by the parole board.
Swansea Crown Court heard Ms Evans was the mother of two young children.
Passing his sentence, Judge Geraint Walters said Ms Evans “had just taken her two children for the last time on their school run” prior to the attack.
“She wasn’t to know that when she parted company with them that morning,” he added.
The court heard the Jones believed he was being defrauded by Ms Evans and his son.
“There is clear evidence, that in the days leading up to this, that you had begun harbouring thoughts that Sophie Evans and your own son were in fact financially scamming you,” he said.
“What precisely brought about that view is difficult to determine.”
Judge Walters said Jones “lost [his] temper when [he] didn’t get the answer that [he] thought [he] deserved”.
He added that, having lost his temper, the defendant “subjected [Ms Evans] to gross violence over a period of time, before you ultimately extinguished her life by strangulation”.
The court was told in evidence that at the time of the attack, Ms Evans was wearing only a bath towel.
‘The rock of our family’
In a victim personal statement, Ms Evans’s sister Kerry Quinlan told the court she was “the rock of our family”.
She said Ms Evans was taken from them in a “senseless and cruel act”.
“Words cannot express fully how much of a loss this has been to her children,” she added.
“When they cry themselves to sleep wanting their mum, she isn’t there and never will be.”
Ms Quinlan added that Jones had “taken everything from us, all in the most despicable way possible”.
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Ms Evans’s partner at the time, and the defendant’s son, Jamie Davies, said in a victim personal statement, read on his behalf, that they had both “trusted” Jones, and that Ms Evans had even been planning the defendant’s 50th birthday.
“The thought of having to live my life without Sophie causes me extreme pain and heartache,” he added.
Prosecuting, Michael Jones KC said the offence was aggravated by the defendant’s previous convictions and the fact Ms Evans was murdered in her home.
In mitigation, David Elias KC said there was a “lack of premeditation”.
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