The decision to reduce the number of children who are offered Covid jabs has elicited outrage from parent groups.
The UK Health Security Agency said that children who were not five years old by the end of last month would not be offered a vaccine. The offer of Covid jabs to healthy five to 11 year olds was never meant to be permanent.
The one-off programme applies to those who turn five years of age before August 2022.
After the one off-programme, eligibility is expected to be for children in the academic years where they are 11 or 12 years old.
The second Covid vaccine is approved by the UK.
Prof Christina Pagel was not a fan of the move.
Even if most of the children had already been exposed to the disease,JCVI still considered it a benefit to give them the vaccine.
The benefit to children of providing additional protection from developing long Covid, missing school during the acute illness and reducing transmission to household members, other children and teachers is added.
At least one serious Covid wave was expected later this year, but Pagel said that many children about to start school would have to wait six years for vaccine, with infections likely to increase in that time.
It seems unjustifiable that children have died from Covid when there is a safe and effective vaccine.
Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol and a member of the JCVI, said that while the Covid vaccine programme would probably be wound down at some point, it hadn't been decided when this would happen.
The proportion of parents who chose to have their children immunised had been small in the UK.
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Young children are at very low risk of developing severe disease from Covid according to the JCVI.
Finn said that the main policy focus right now is to try to immunize those who are at highest risk of severe Covid.
All children over the age of five in clinical risk groups will be offered Covid jabs.
The offer was only applicable to children who were five years old by August 31st. Eligible children who were five years old on August 31st can still come forward for the vaccine, even if they have not received it yet.
Any updates to its advice will be announced in due course, as the JCVI continually reviews the UK's Covid-19 vaccine programme.
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