Covid Vaccine Eligibility 2025

Who’s eligible for the 2025 COVID-19 vaccine, or ‘Autumn Booster’? – UK Health Security Agency

Last year Covid vaccine was offered for free to anyone 65 years old and over and those with a long list of chronic or long-term conditions.

That’s now been changed with the age limit raised to all those who turn 75 before January 2026, plus residents in care homes for older adults and people classed as immunosuppressed. That includes those undergoing some cancer treatment and transplant patients, along with those living with HIV and some genetic disorders.

This does mean many people with conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, respiratory illneses, asthma and severe mental illness will no longer qualify. In addition, pregnant women and frontline health and social care workers will not be offered the jab for free this autumn.

The changes to eligibility were made on the advice of a group of independent experts called the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

The JCVI said Covid was now a “relatively mild disease for most people”, with rates of hospitalisation and death having “reduced significantly”.

It said focusing on the oldest adults and individuals whose immune systems are compromised, as the two groups who continue to be at higher risk, was based on “a standard cost-effectiveness assessment, in line with other routine vaccinations”.

We urge any patient in this situation to treat our surgery team with respect as we try and manage the new NHS clinical criteria.