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All adults to be offered booster jab by end of the month as Boris Johnson declares Omicron an emergency
‘No one should be in any doubt, there is a tidal wave of Omicron coming’
Boris Johnson has announced that booster jabs will be offered to everyone over the age of eighteen from this week as the Omicron variant is declared an ’emergency’.
In a pre-recorded message to the nation this evening, the Prime Minister said the target to vaccinate all adults by the end of January will be brought forward by a month in a bid to combat the rising Omicron infection rates.
He said: “No one should be in any doubt, there is a tidal wave of Omicron coming.”
Johnson said that it is clear that two doses of vaccine are ‘simply not enough to give the level of protection we all need’, and added that scientists are confident that with a third dose – a booster dose – protection levels will rise.
On claims the new variant isn’t as severe, he added: “At this point our scientists cannot say that Omicron is less severe.
“And even if that proved to be true, we already know it is so much more transmissible that a wave of Omicron through a population that was not boosted would risk a level of hospitalisation that could overwhelm our NHS and lead sadly to very many deaths.”
The PM then explained that, in order to reach the new booster target at the end of the month, certain other medical appointments will need to be postponed until the New Year. Some GPs are already allowed to postpone routine health checks to make space for vaccinations.
BBC
He also said extra vaccine sites and mobile units will be set up across England, opening hours of clinics will be extended with more appointments made available, and ‘thousands more’ volunteer vaccinators will be trained.
Forty-two military planning teams will also be deployed across every region to help with the effort.
This announcement comes just days after the introduction of Covid restrictions, including a work from home order, face masks in venues such as theatres and cinemas and the introduction of covid passports for nightclubs and other ‘crowded’ venues.
Johnson said on the controversial Covid vaccines: “We will also make the NHS Covid pass mandatory for entry into nightclubs and venues where large crowds gather, including unseated indoor venues with more than 500 people, unseated outdoor venues with more than 4,000 people and any venue with more than 10,000 people.”