Covid vaccines are being injected into healthy 12 to 15-year-olds in schools across Britain today for the first time.
A single dose of Pfizer's jab is being used for children in the age group and it's hoped that the rollout will prevent further disruptions to their education.
Parental consent is being sought, but children can overrule parents who do not want them to get the jab if deemed 'competent', in a move that has caused controversy.
More than 3million under-16s are eligible for the vaccines and ministers expect at least 60 per cent to take up the offer.
The jabs are being administered at some schools in England today and the rollout is due to begin in Scotland and Wales later this week.
In Northern Ireland, the head of the region's vaccination programme said jabs are likely to be offered in schools from October.
The scientific community has been split over vaccinating healthy children against Covid because the virus poses such a low risk to them.
No10's own advisory panel said earlier this month that immunising them would only provide 'marginal' benefit to their health, and not enough to advise a mass rollout.
But Chris Whitty and the chief medical officers in the devolved nations came down in favour of the rollout after weighing up the wider benefits to children.
They said hundreds of thousands of school absences could be prevented and school closures averted if there was good uptake of the vaccines.
Covid vaccines are being injected into healthy 12 to 15-year-olds in schools across Britain today for the first time (file)
Earlier this month the JCVI said it could not recommend Covid jabs for healthy 12 to 15-year-olds because the direct benefit to their health was only marginal. It also looked at the risk of health inflammation - known as myocarditis - in young people given the Pfizer vaccine, which was still very small but slightly more common after a second dose
The rollout in England will primarily be done in schools through the in-school vaccination service teams that already carry out routine vaccine programmes for things like flu.
Schools will be used as a site for administering the vaccines and distributing consent and information forms to pupils and
