Appeal for support in rolling out boosters

MORE support is wanted in the emergency booster roll-out across the city and county as the number of Omicron cases continues to rise.

The UK Health Security Agency confirmed there has been a total of 11,708 cases of the new variant recorded nationally, with 1,691 new daily infections reported on Thursday alone. The government is relying on a mass booster roll-out to help protect the country against the virus.

Forces personnel have been deployed across the country, including in Leicestershire, to assist but the public is being urged to step forward as well.

Dr Caroline Trevithick, of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioning Group, praised the work of NHS staff, volunteers and the military but said: “We need as many people as possible to play their part by volunteering their time to help.

“No task is too small to contribute to our efforts against the pandemic – we need to increase our capacity to unprecedented levels, to protect our population quickly.”

There are multiple ways you can get involved with the local vaccine effort:

ST JOHN AMBULANCE

The charity recruited and trained more than 30,000 volunteers for the vaccination roll-out between November 2020 and March 2021, including vaccinators.

If you were one of those volunteers you can help with the emergency effort. All the volunteers were emailed after Boris Johnson’s call to “get boosted” on December 12 to come forward again.

St John Ambulance online support systems are being regularly updated as new opportunities to help the roll-out become available. You can also express interest as a new recruit via an online form and will be contacted if volunteers are needed locally.

STEWARDS

Those working on-site to guide and support patients at vaccine clinics are also vital to the booster programme. The role requires you to commit to at least two shifts at a vaccine site each month. Shifts are up to four hours.

PAID ROLES

Paid roles are also available across the vaccine services through NHS Professionals, which supplies temporary staff to the health service.

Anyone who previously applied and had training for a role within the vaccine roll-out will be contacted to ask if they are still interested in a position.

All of the roles provide training. Some available roles are also advertised by NHS employers which can be found online.

Register interest at: