NHS Lothian sorry for error in Covid vaccine invites for children

Health bosses have apologised after parents of healthy children were sent vaccine invites saying their youngsters had an underlying health condition.

NHS Lothian said there was an "admin error" in letters sent to some families in Midlothian and West Lothian.

The Covid vaccination programme has been extended to cover youngsters aged between five and 11 across Scotland.

NHS Lothian said parents should still bring children for their jab - even if they had received the wrong letter.

Katie Dee, deputy director of public health at NHS Lothian, said: "We are really sorry for this admin error and are writing to the affected parents to apologise for the confusion it may cause.

"We use two letter templates in Lothian to invite children - one for children who have underlying health conditions and one for children who do not.

"It appears that the wrong version may have been used when offering some appointments to children in Midlothian and West Lothian."

Ms Dee stressed that appointments in the letters were still valid, telling parents they should "turn up for the appointment that has been reserved for them".

"The numbers of people testing positive for infection have increased rapidly across Scotland and vaccination is one of the best ways to protect ourselves and our children against the virus," she added.

The UK's Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) officially backed the rollout of vaccines to youngsters in February.

Young people are at a much lower risk of becoming seriously ill from Covid, and many already have some protection from having had the virus previously.

But the group's scientists concluded that vaccination should be approved to protect a "very small number of children from serious illness and hospitalisation" in a future outbreak.