The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has advised that all 16- and 17-year-olds receive their first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

“This updated advice means we can be confident that young people will be afforded around 80% protection against hospitalisation, following receipt of their first dose,” said Public Health England in a recent release.

While COVID-19 is typically mild or asymptomatic in most young people, it can be unpleasant for some and for this particular age group, PHE expects one dose of the vaccine to provide good protection against severe illness and hospitalisation.

The JCVI has considered the latest safety data from the UK and other countries to assess extremely rare but serious side effects in this younger age group, including myocarditis and pericarditis.

Data from the US suggests that, in males aged 12- to 17-years-old, 9.8 cases of myocarditis were reported per million first doses given. This rises to 67 per million after the second dose, although most people recovered quickly.

Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said: “The advice from the independent JCVI means more young people aged 16 and over can benefit from COVID-19 vaccines. COVID-19 vaccines have saved more than 60,000 lives and prevented 22 million infections in England alone.”

A team from King’s College London (KCL) has found that fewer than one in 20 children with symptomatic COVID-19 experienced symptoms lasting longer than four weeks, with nearly all children having fully recovered by eight weeks.

The researchers at KCL examined daily health reports logged in the ZOE COVID Symptom Study app between March 2020 and February 2021 by parents or carers on behalf of more than 250,000 children aged five-17.

1,734 children were found to have a clear start and end point to their symptoms and a positive COVID-19 PCR test, enabling the researchers to determine their duration of illness with some allowance for symptoms reoccurring.

On average, the illness lasted for five days in younger children (five to 11 years old) and seven days in older children aged 12 to 17. Fewer than one in 20 (4.4%) experienced symptoms for four weeks or more, while only one in 50 (1.8%) had symptoms lasting more than eight weeks.

UK researchers have found that extending the time between the first and second doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine boosted antibodies against all variants of the virus tested compared to a short dosing interval.

The PITCH study included 503 healthcare workers in Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Oxford and Sheffield. Researchers compared a short dosing interval (median 3.4 weeks, range two-five weeks) and long dosing schedules (median ten weeks, range six-14 weeks) of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab.

They found that a longer dosing interval led to two times higher neutralising antibodies against all variants, including the Delta variant, compared to the short dosing schedule.

The researchers also found that although antibody levels decreased after the first doses, T-cell levels remained high. Meanwhile a longer dosing schedule led to fewer T-cells overall but produced a higher proportion of helper T-cells which, according to the researchers, supports immune memory.

However, the study found levels of antibodies and T cells varied between individuals regardless of the dosing schedule that they received.