Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether people who are immunosuppressed still receive notifications to remind them of their covid-19 booster vaccine eligibility.

NHS England continues to invite people who are immunosuppressed for all COVID-19 vaccine doses they are eligible to receive, including booster doses.

Individuals who are immunosuppressed should be invited to book their COVID-19 autumn booster dose by the NHS. GPs or hospital specialists invite those with severe immunosuppression based on clinical judgement of optimal timing for the individual concerned.

Local COVID-19 vaccination sites have been advised by the NHS to allow people with immunosuppression to self-declare their eligibility for a COVID-19 autumn booster vaccination, and they can also attend walk-in sites to make getting their booster vaccination as easy as possible.

The Government continues to be guided by the advice of the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines.

The Government has accepted the JCVI’s advice that in exceptional circumstances the Novavax vaccine, Nuvaxovid, may be used when no clinically suitable United Kingdom-approved COVID-19 vaccine alternative is available.

The Nuvaxovid vaccine is the current alternative for those who are clinically intolerant to and are unable to receive the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna which are currently in deployment.

Deployment of Nuvaxovid began on 28 September 2022. Nuvaxovid replaces the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, Vaxzevria, as an alternative for a mRNA vaccine.