By Connor Boyd Deputy Health Editor for MailOnline
Children should wait at least 12 weeks after catching Covid to get their jab, Britain's vaccine advisory panel recommended today.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said there is evidence the longer gap reduces the risk of myocarditis, a type of heart inflammation reported in a small number of children after vaccination.
Today's change to the guidance only applies to healthy children aged 12 to 17, who previously only had to wait a month after infection to get jabbed.
The four-week gap remains the advice for adults over the age of 18 and children extremely vulnerable to Covid.
Twelve to 15-year-olds are still being offered just one dose of Pfizer's vaccine while officials monitor myocarditis rates in other countries.
But as of this week, 16 and 17-year-olds can now come forward for the second jab after the UK's regulator decided the benefit of the jabs 'clearly' outweighed the risk.
So far, more than half of older teenagers have come forward for a first dose and nearly a third of 12 to 15-year-olds have had the initial jab.
Fifteen-year-old Quinn Foakes receiving a Covid-19 vaccination at Belfairs Academy in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, in September
Families who have recently had a child vaccinated shortly after infection were told not to worry, and that the new approach is 'highly precautionary'.
The UK Health Security Agency, which announced the move today, admitted that it would slow down the rollout of the national vaccine programme.
But it insisted it should not have a major impact on the epidemic because children still have high levels of natural immunity.
The UKHSA estimates half of secondary-aged pupils have already had the virus.
