COVID-19 vaccine

Spring 2025 programme

The vaccination programme, to help protect Northern Ireland against deadly viruses, has now started and will continue to the end of June.

You will be offered the COVID-19 vaccine if you are:

• aged 75 and over
• a resident in a care home
• aged six months to 74 years and immunosuppressed

If you are eligible for vaccination against COVID-19 or flu this spring, you should make yourself aware of your own GP surgery’s or community pharmacist’s vaccination arrangements and work with them to get vaccinated.

Where to get your COVID-19 vaccine

GP surgeries

You can get the COVID-19 vaccine from your GP surgery if you are:

• aged 75 and over
• 18 to 74 years old and immunosuppressed
• Your local doctor

Community pharmacies

Participating community pharmacies are offering the COVID-19  vaccine to:

• care home residents
• people aged 75 and over
• those aged 18 to 74 and immunosuppressed

You can find out which community pharmacies are offering vaccinations near you by putting in your postcode at the link below:

• Find a vaccination clinic

HSC Trust clinics

You can get the COVID-19 vaccine from a HSC Trust clinic if you are:

• six months to 17 years old and immunosuppressed
• 18 to 74 years old and immunosuppressed
• aged 75 and over

If you are housebound and fall within an eligible group, a HSC Trust team will be in touch to arrange your vaccination.

You can book a vaccine appointment at your local HSC Trust clinic at the link below:

• Get vaccinated

Infant programme

The COVID-19 vaccine is being offered to children aged six months to four years who are immunosuppressed, in line with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advice.

Children with immunosuppression due to disease or treatment and therefore at serious risk from the complications of coronavirus infection include:

• those undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy, solid organ transplant recipients, bone marrow or stem cell transplant recipients
• genetic disorders affecting the immune system (such as deficiencies of IRAK-4 or NEMO, complement disorder, SCID)
• those with haematological malignancy, including leukaemia and lymphoma
• those receiving immunosuppressive or immunomodulating biological therapy
• those treated with or likely to be treated with high or moderate dose corticosteroids
• those receiving any dose of non-biological oral immune modulating drugs such as methotrexate, azathioprine, 6-mercaptopurine or mycophenolat
• those with auto-immune diseases who may require long term immunosuppressive treatments

Children who are about to receive planned immunosuppressive therapy should be considered for vaccination before starting therapy.

Some parents may receive a letter or a phone call to invite their child to an HSC Trust clinic for vaccination.

If you receive an invitation letter, it will explain how to make the appointment for your child.

The leaflet to support parents of children at serious risk from the complications of coronavirus infection is available at:

• COVID-19: A guide for parents of children six months to four years of age at high risk

Young people aged five to 17 years

Some young people are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine if they are between the ages of five and 17 and immunosuppressed.

Further information is available at:

• COVID-19 vaccination - a guide for children and young people and translations
• What to expect after your COVID-19 vaccination - advice for children and young people and translations

First doses of COVID-19 vaccine

If you have never received a COVID-19 vaccine, you can receive a vaccine during the spring programme.

Further information about the vaccine is available at:

• COVID-19 vaccination programme information materials

Types of vaccine

There are many different types of coronavirus vaccines.

The vaccines that will be administered during the spring 2025 programme include:

• COVID-19 Comirnaty® JN.1 (Pfizer) dispersion for injection (infant and adolescent formulas)
• COVID-19 Spikevax JN.1 (Moderna) dispersion for inject

Vaccine safety

The vaccines have met strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness set out by the independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

More information is available at:

• Coronavirus (COVID-19): vaccine safety

Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine research registry

The NHS COVID-19 vaccine registry allows members of the public to register their interest and be contacted to take in clinical studies. 

If you are 18 years old or over and live in the UK, you can sign up to give permission for researchers to contact you about taking part in COVID-19 vaccine studies. 

You are not signing up to take part in a specific health study when you use this service. You are letting researchers know you're happy for them to contact you if they think you might be suitable to take part in their studies.

• Sign up to be contacted about coronavirus vaccine research

More information about taking part in research and other opportunities to take part in COVID-19 research can be found at:

• Be part of research