Dr. Ronan Glynn:

Whether it becomes an annual necessity is an open question. At this stage, it is more likely that we may need a booster programme next autumn or winter, although that is not entirely clear either.

The question of how the vaccination programme will be deployed largely depends on the developments in vaccines over the coming weeks and months, whether we are still using all of the vaccines that we currently have, and whether better and different vaccines come along and what the requirements are in terms of their deployment and administration. If we needed to run a similar programme next autumn and had to offer a vaccine to everyone aged 16 years and older in the population, we would have to use every available avenue to ensure the uptake was as high as it could be.