Coronavirus: Teachers
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of giving teachers an emergency covid booster.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The Government is committed to protecting those most vulnerable to serious disease from COVID-19 through vaccination, as guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
The JCVI has advised that since 2020, population immunity to COVID-19 has been increasing. COVID-19 is now a relatively mild disease for most people, with rates of hospitalisation and death from COVID-19 having reduced significantly since the disease first emerged. The currently available COVID-19 vaccines provide limited protection against transmission and mild disease.
On 13 November 2024, the JCVI published advice on the COVID-19 vaccination programme for spring 2025, autumn 2025, and spring 2026. This advice is available at the following link:
On 26 June 2025, the Government accepted the JCVI’s advice that in autumn 2025, a COVID-19 vaccination should be offered to adults aged 75 years old and over, residents in care homes for older adults, and the immunosuppressed aged six months old and over.
There are no plans to offer an emergency COVID-19 vaccination to any group. In line with JCVI advice, teachers as a group will not be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination. Teachers who are otherwise eligible, for example because of their own health conditions, will be offered the vaccine as part of the autumn 2025 vaccination programme.
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