Booster programme to restart after break
COVID booster jabs will resume today in Wales after they were not administered on Christmas Day or Boxing Day.
The Welsh Government said the service would resume today, but in England the rollout continued over both Christmas and Boxing Day.
Wales is now under tougher restrictions as part of the plan to tackle the new and highlytransmissible Omicron variant.
The aim in Wales is for all eligible adults to be offered the booster by the end of December to offer greater protection against the mutant strain.
To date 1,490,668 people have been given their booster jab in Wales. On Tuesday, December 21 a record 50,524 jabs were given in a single day.
The Welsh Government said the decision to pause the vaccination programme over Christmas was made by health boards. The move was backed by Cardiff University virologist Dr Richard Stanton, who said most people would rather spend the day with their families than going out to get a booster and it would be hard to find staff to man vaccine centres. The British Medical Association in Wales also said the two-day pause was not a concern.
Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister, Russell George MS, said it “did not make sense” to halt boosters on Boxing Day and warned the decision will be met with “much bemusement” by families and businesses across Wales.
He said: “We’ve always known that vaccination, not restriction, will defeat the pandemic. This remains the case and vaccination should always be the top priority for the Labour Government – even on Boxing Day.”
Uptake of booster vaccines (according to PHW): ■■Care home residents: 86.9% ■■Care home workers: 71.5% ■■80 years and older: 85.9% ■■Healthcare workers: 81.6% ■■Social care workers: 37,888 ■■75-79 years: 88.2% ■■70-74 years: 88% ■■Clinically extremely vulnerable 16-69 years: 52.3% ■■65-69 years: 85.5% ■■Clinical risk groups 12-64 years: 65.7% ■■60-64 years: 79% ■■55-59 years: 72.6% ■■50-54 years: 65.8% ■■40-49 years: 49.9% ■■30-39 years: 30.8% ■■18-29 years: 20.9% ■■16-17 years: 6.2%