Booster vaccines will be offered to people aged 50 and over, those in care homes and frontline health and social care workers, the Government has announced.

Experts said the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine should be used as the booster dose for more than 30 million people, and that it was safe to be given alongside the usual winter flu jab.

All those who are clinically extremely vulnerable and anyone aged 16 to 65 in an at-risk group group for Covid (who were in priority groups one to nine during the initial vaccine rollout) will also be eligible for a jab.

Three vaccines have been approved as safe and effective as boosters – AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna – but experts have decided to opt for Pfizer as a preference after studies showed it is well tolerated and works well as a booster.

The Pfizer jab as a booster can be given to people who had two doses of AstraZeneca previously.

If necessary, Moderna may be used as an alternative, but as a half-dose booster shot after studies showed it was effective with few side-effects.

People should receive their third booster dose at least six months after they received their second dose of a Covid vaccine.

When there is more data, experts plan to look at whether boosters should also be offered to healthy people under the age of 50.

England’s deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam warned of a “bumpy” winter ahead as he set out the findings of the review of Covid-19 booster jabs.

At a Downing Street press conference, he said vaccines had been “incredibly successful” and had so far prevented an estimated 24 million Covid-19 cases and 112,000 deaths.

“But we also know that this pandemic is still active. We are not past the pandemic, we are in an active phase still.

“We know that this winter could quite possibly be bumpy at times and we know that other respiratory viruses such as flu and RSV are highly likely to make their returns.”

Professor Wei Shen Lim, of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said the recommendation of at least a six-month gap between the second jab and a booster shot was an attempt to find a “sweet spot”.

The booster programme should mirror the first phase of the initial vaccine rollout, he said.

“We want to suggest a six-month limit as a lower limit because we don’t want people to feel they need to rush to have this booster dose,” he told a Downing Street press conference.

“Getting a booster dose too early might mean getting a dose when they don’t actually need to have vaccination because they still have a high level of protection.

“And, as we have seen with the first and second dose, it may be that a longer interval to the third booster dose may actually be beneficial in the longer term.

“On the other hand, we don’t want to wait too long before offering a booster dose, so trying to find a sweet spot between going too soon and going too late we are suggesting that the booster dose is given no earlier than six months after the second dose.”

He added: “Hopefully, this will mean that the levels of protection people have will be highest during the coldest months of the winter.”