Boris in vow for ‘great jab effort’
EVERYONE eligible for a coronavirus booster jab will be offered one by the end of January, Boris Johnson said as he promised “another great British vaccination effort” to tackle the Omicron variant.
The Prime Minister said at least 400 military personnel will help the NHS and volunteers deliver jabs, with centres “popping up like Christmas trees”.
Mr Johnson told a Downing Street press conference: “We’ve already done almost 18 million boosters across the UK but we’ve got millions more to do to protect the most vulnerable.
“Then we’ll move down the cohorts rapidly, and working together with the devolved administrations we want to ramp up capacity across the whole United Kingdom to the levels we achieved in the previous vaccination effort.
“We’re going to be throwing everything at it in order to ensure that everyone eligible is offered that booster, as I say, in just over two months.”
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the booster programme would be put “on steroids” to meet the target.
The need for action was underlined as the number of confirmed cases of the Omicron variant in the UK reached 22, with that figure expected to increase further.
Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, said staff are working at “breakneck speed” to expand the booster jab rollout.
Speaking at the press conference, she said: “The NHS Covid vaccination programme was already in its most complex phase and staff are now working at breakneck speed to respond to this, the biggest change in eligibility since the programme was launched.”
Ms Pritchard said “while changes to the booking system protocols and patient group directive are put in place” the rollout will continue to vaccinate those already eligible and repeated the Prime Minister’s call for people “not already eligible” not to contact the NHS about a jab until they are called forward.
Mr Johnson also said the Government does not want people to cancel Christmas parties or nativity plays.
He said: “We don’t want people to cancel such events. We think that overwhelmingly the best thing for kids is to be in school, as I’ve said many times throughout this pandemic.
“What we are doing is trying to take a balanced and proportionate approach to the particular risk that seems to be posed by Omicron, or certainly is posed by Omicron, focused in particular on measures at the borders.
“And we think that’s the right way to go for the time being, until we know more and until we can get more boosters, as we’ve been saying, into people’s arms.”