‘A significant step’ in pandemic battle
Royal Borough: Call for people to get boosted as Omicron spreads
Residents across the Royal Borough are being urged to come forward for their booster jab after the NHS vaccine booking service opened to all eligible adults yesterday (Wednesday).
It comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the British public that the country was facing an ‘Omicron emergency’ in the wake of the new variant, and set a target of securing bookings for all adults by the start of the New Year.
On Wednesday, the Government announced a further 78,610 positive cases in the country, the highest level recorded in a single day since the pandemic began.
The Government is now encouraging residents to ‘get boosted now’, as it is feared that two vaccinations may not be sufficient against the new variant.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, councillor Stuart Carroll, lead member for health, reiterated and stressed vaccination remains
our ‘nuclear weapon’.
He urged everyone to get their booster jab and called for the unvaccinated to get their shot as soon as possible.
Cllr Carroll, who is an epidemiologist and on the UK vaccine taskforce, said: “Ensuring every adult can get access to a booster, who has already had their second dose from three months ago or longer, before the end of the New Year is a critical and significant step.
“The issue there is as your protection starts to wane from your second dose, the risk that poses
increases even if Omicron has got the same level of severity as Beta and
Delta because naturally as you wane, you become more susceptible.
“The susceptibility increases because Omicron is even more infectious and transmissible, so the chances of getting that variant are higher and it would appear that, potentially, Omicron will be, to some extent, more severe but the extent of which has to be analysed and we don’t have a handle on that at the moment because it’s a function of data.
“To be able to reach reasonable conclusions, you need a significant number of cases because you need to have a statistically significant sample size to start extrapolating population trends.”
Residents can book their jab online at tinyurl.com/2p8aafer
Vaccine centres at the Desborough Suite in Maidenhead and Salt Hill Vaccination Centre are currently operating for pre-booked appointments only. A list of the nearest walk-in centres, which include sites in Reading and Uxbridge, can be found at tinyurl.com/ 5bumhhhw