Nearly 5MILLION vulnerable over-50s have yet to have their Covid booster vaccine

Nearly five million vulnerable over-50s have yet to receive a Covid booster vaccine, official figures show after Downing Street admitted Britain faces a 'challenging' winter.

Despite the booster programme launching over a month ago, only around 3.7million out of the 8.5m eligible Britons have received the crucial third dose of the vaccine.

No10's scientists approved plans to revaccinate all healthy over-50s, frontline health staff and carers and patients with underlying conditions six months after their second dose after finding it was the 'sweet spot' for immunity.

The lagging rollout has left around 4.8m people with sub-optimal immunity as Britain moves into the colder months and faces the double threat of increasing case numbers and flu.

SAGE adviser 'Professor Lockdown' Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London, said today it was 'critical we accelerate' the booster drive to give ourselves the best chance of avoiding brining back curbs.

And Sir David King, who was the Government's chief scientific adviser from 2000 to 2007, criticised the rollout for moving 'extremely slowly'.

Experts say the booster programme is going slowly because Britain is juggling administering first doses to children in secondary schools and running the largest flu vaccination programme in history. Demand for boosters has also been lower than expected.

It comes against the backdrop of rising cases with 49,156 infections recorded yesterday — the highest figure in three months. Downing Street warned that Britons should prepare for a 'challenging few months'

Boris Johnson's spokesman said there were 'currently' no plans to reintroduce restrictions but that ministers were keeping 'a very close watch on the latest statistics'.

Around 3.7million third vaccines have been dished out to over-50s and the immuno-compromised in England as of Sunday (purple line), the latest date data is available for. But some 8.5million people are currently eligible for a booster dose, having received their second jab six months ago (green line). means 4.8million people may be suffering from waning immunity

SAGE adviser 'Professor Lockdown' Neil Ferguson (left), an epidemiologist at Imperial College London, said it is 'critical we accelerate' the booster drive. And Sir David King (right), who was the Government's chief scientific adviser from 2000 to 2007, said the rollout is moving 'extremely slowly'

Now more schools reintroduce face masks in face of Covid spikes

A secondary school in Essex has become the latest to bring back Covid restrictions after a surge in Covid cases among pupils and staff.

Thurstable School in Colchester emailed parents yesterday informing them that their children must wear face masks at all times when indoors — even during lessons in classrooms.

There were widespread concerns that masks obstruct communicating and learning during earlier phases of the pandemic.

Assemblies have also been scrapped and moved to 'virtual'.

Rapid testing will be used on-site if staff become worried about a particular group or class.

Headteacher Mr J Ketley said in an email, seen by Essex Live, that the measures will stay in place for two weeks before being reassessed when schools split for half-term.

In his email to parents, the head said: 'We have had a significant increase in the number of positive lateral flow test results this weekend, we have received 51 positive lateral flow tests since Friday.

'We are therefore asking students to wear a face mask in all indoor areas including classrooms for the remainder of this week and the first day back after the half-term break.'

Meanwhile, secondary school pupils in Scotland will continue to wear face coverings in class, according to new guidance from the Scottish Government.

Face coverings in communal areas for secondary pupils and staff, as well as primary staff, will also continue.

The new guidance is contrary to reports last week that the need for face coverings would be dropped when pupils return from the October break.

The measures are being kept in place to buy time to vaccinate more teenagers.

But Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has said the restrictions will be lifted 'at the earliest possible time'.

'In recent weeks we have seen the previous sharp decline in Covid-19 case numbers starting to level off, and that is why we have decided to adopt a cautious approach and maintain safety mitigations in school for the time-being,' she said.

'Progress with vaccinating 12-15 year olds has been remarkable and is already over 40 per cent.

'However, this was only rolled out a few weeks ago and allowing further time will mean that that encouraging figure rises even higher.

'This decision is based on advice from senior clinicians and takes account of the most recent data.

'We will continue to monitor case rates on a weekly basis, with a view to lifting restrictions at the earliest possible time.'

Ms Somerville added: 'While I fully understand that this will be disappointing news for some young people and their parents, as has been the situation throughout, the safety of children, young people, and all education staff, remains the overriding priority.

'There is no room for complacency and we must all continue to remain vigilant to reduce the spread of Covid-19.'

Scotland has taken a more cautious approach to lifting Covid restrictions than England.

People north of the border are required to present vaccine passports before attending large events or nightclubs and masks are still compulsory in indoor spaces.

Britain led the world in the initial vaccine rollout, but it has now slumped behind Italy, Spain and France in terms of the percentage of the population to be double-jabbed. This is because it delayed rolling out jabs to healthy children, whereas most EU members approved those plans much quicker.

All over-50s and the clinically vulnerable can get a booster jab from six months after their second dose. But experts have warned that at the current rate the most vulnerable will not all receive their third vaccination until the end of January.

Asked if Covid booster jabs are the answer to waning immunity, Professor Ferguson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'Absolutely, and there's data coming through now, which is not completely clear cut, but good data coming through from Israel, which shows that, if you've had the third booster dose of the vaccine, then you get very high loads, better than even you had after the second dose.

'And so I do think it's critical we accelerate the booster programme.

'The other thing is infection rates are highest in teenagers at the moment and most other European countries are ahead of us in vaccinating teenagers and giving them two doses, not just one dose.

'Two doses really are needed to block infection and prevent transmission, so I think that's the other problem, keep pushing on, getting coverage rates up higher in the teenagers who are driving a lot of this infection.'

The SAGE member said the doubling time for hospital admissions is about five weeks, 'so I think we need (to be) on the case, and we do need to prioritise the (booster) vaccination programme but we're not in the same position as last year.

'I don't think it's a reason to panic right now but I would certainly like to see vaccination booster doses accelerated, vaccination for teenagers accelerated.'

And Sir David said the pace of the Covid booster rollout was going 'extremely slowly'.

He told Sky News that the dangers going into winter of waning immunity were clear, adding: 'The number of new cases per day is close to 40,000.'

More than a third of fully vaccinated over-80s in England are likely to have received their Covid booster jab, according to the data.

Of the nearly 2.7million people aged 80 and over in England who have already received two doses of vaccine, around 923,000 are estimated to have had their booster dose — the equivalent of 34 per cent.

The figures, from NHS England, also show that 18 per cent of double-jabbed people aged 75 to 79 are likely to have received a booster, along with eight per cent of those aged 70 to 74.

In total, more than 2.4million booster doses have now been delivered in England. This is the equivalent of just over six per cent of the double-jabbed population — around one in 16.

John Roberts, of the Covid-19 Actuaries Response Group, said: 'At the start of the booster