People are being asked to volunteer to help deliver the Covid booster jab in a race against time to counter a ‘tidal wave’ of the new Covid variant, Omicron.

Boris Johnson has announced every eligible adult in England will be offered a top-up dose of the Covid vaccine before the end of December.

But ‘tens of thousands’ of volunteers are needed to reach the new deadline, which is a whole month earlier than the government’s original target.

They range from stewards to organise and manage the queues to trained vaccinators to administer the jabs.

The unprecedented pace of delivery reflects concern that two doses of the vaccine offers only reduced protection against Omicron while a third jab significantly increases protection.

Mr Johnson has acknowledged that the supercharged roll-out will require an ‘extraordinary effort’ by the NHS.

Hundreds more vaccination sites, mobile units and pop-ups are due to open over the coming week to help reach the target.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser thatsupports HTML5video

In a direct appeal to the public, Mr Johnson said: ‘As part of our Get Boosted Now vaccination drive we need to increase our jabbing capacity to unprecedented levels.

‘But to achieve something on this scale, we need your help.

‘So today I’m issuing a call for volunteers to join our national mission to get jabs in arms.

‘We need tens of thousands of people to help out, everyone from trained vaccinators to stewards.

‘Many thousands have already given their time but we need you to come forward again, to work alongside our brilliant GPs, doctors, nurses and pharmacists, to deliver jabs and save lives.

‘So please come forward if you can.’

There are currently almost 3,000 vaccine sites across the country, staffed by over 90,000 volunteers.

After the NHS announced a recruitment drive for 10,000 paid vaccinators last week, 4,500 people have registered their interest while 13,000 have come forward as volunteer stewards.

NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard said: ‘In the face of the grave threat posed by the new Omicron strain of Covid, the NHS is seeking to offer vaccine booster protection to all eligible adults by the end of the month, a new national mission in which everyone can play their part.

‘There is no doubt that our incredible NHS staff will rise to the challenge but we cannot do this alone, we need the support of the public and volunteers to once again support the Covid vaccination programme.’

Sir Kier Starmer has also backed the vaccine roll-out.

In a response to a televised broadcast on Monday, Sir Keir said that it was essential to put the national interest first as he urged people to get their top-up injections.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Source: Read Full Article