The government’s health advisers will decide in early September whether to recommend booster jabs for people who are already fully vaccinated against coronavirus.

The Outbreak Management Team (OMT) said in June that a third dose with a modified vaccine was a ‘plausible’ option, particularly for people vaccinated earlier in the year.

The US government decided on Tuesday to offer booster vaccines eight months after people received their second shot, starting with healthcare staff and nursing home residents.

But the World Organisation has urged western nations to ensure the rest of the world is fully vaccinated before giving third doses to their own citizens.

‘We cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it,’ the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said earlier this month.