Covid-19 news: UK to announce plans for booster shots in coming weeks

UK to decide on booster vaccine programme following results from trials testing different vaccine combinations. Plans for a covid-19 vaccine booster programme will be announced in the coming weeks, UK health minister Matt Hancock has said. On 21 June, Hancock told BBC Breakfast that ministers were waiting for results from trials testing the effects of different combinations of covid-19 vaccines. “In the next few weeks, when we get the clinical data through on what’s the most effective combination [of covid-19 vaccines] to have […] then we’ll set out all the details for the booster programme for the autumn,” said Hancock. Speaking to reporters on the same day, UK prime minister Boris Johnson said the NHS could face “big pressures” in winter with flu season and that it is unlikely that restrictions in England would be lifted before 19 July.