Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust have announced that they are no longer offering the AstraZeneca (AZ) Covid-19 vaccine, although walk-in hospital clinics continue offer Pfizer jabs.

The south east London trust said in a statement that the AZ vaccine will no longer be available at clinics at Queen Elizabeth and Lewisham hospitals despite the vaccine rollout still moving forwards.

The reason is the majority of local people eligible for the Oxford jab (those aged 40 and over), which sparked controversy over claims of high blood clot risk, have already received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

In May the UK government said that adults under the age of 40 would now be given an alternative to the AZ vaccine due to the link to rare blood clots, with younger age groups having a slightly higher risk.

This Is Local London: Pfizer vaccines will continue to be used, with AstraZeneca no longer offered at the trust.Pfizer vaccines will continue to be used, with AstraZeneca no longer offered at the trust.

This means Pfizer vaccines will be the main vaccine used by the NHS trust moving forwaed.

Clinics at both of the trust's hospitals will continue to offer vaccine doses, opening on the following days and times:

  • Saturday 7 August, 8am–5pm
  • Sunday 8 August, 8am–4pm
  • Monday 9 August, 8am–2pm

At University Hospital Lewisham, the vaccination clinic is in the Lessof Auditorium. At Queen Elizabeth Hospital, it is in the Conference Centre.

There are a number of other walk-in and pop-up clinics in south east London – visit www.selondonccg.nhs.uk for more information.

The AZ vaccine produced by the Cambridge-based pharmaceutical and biotechnology company ended up in a politically driven debate about safety and blood clots earlier this year.

Whilst data showed very minimal risk to patients, the AZ vaccine was no longer offered to under 40s in the UK, although 28.5 million doses of the vaccine had already been administered.