The government has revealed it is planning to speed up its booster vaccination drive, in a bid to get as many people triple-jabbed in the wake of the new Omicron variant arriving in the UK.
There is an increasing number of cases of the new Covid-19 strain in the country, which looks as though it is more transmissible than the other variants. Therefore, the prime minister has announced a new target to provide all adults with the booster by the end of January 2022.
Writing on Twitter, Boris Johnson stated: “This isn’t a call to arms, but a call to get jabs in arms. And quickly.”
He also tweeted: “Vaccines and boosters remain our best line of defence, so it is more important than ever that people come forward when eligible to get boosted.”
In order for the government to meet its new target, it has to speed up its vaccination programme by an additional million doses of the jab a week, from 2.4 million to around 3.5 million.
Currently, 46 million Brits have received their second dose of the vaccine, while just 18.2 million have been given their booster. Therefore, a further 28 million need to receive it before the end of next month.
While there are concerns the vaccination will not be effective against the more severe Omicron, health secretary Sajid Javid reassured the public that it would still help protect against the strain.
The delivery of the inoculation has become one of the biggest achievements in the history of life science, with the world’s leading experts creating, testing and rolling out a vaccine to fight the virus in less than a year. To date, more than eight billion doses of the jab have been administered globally, protecting more than half of the world’s population from the deadly virus.
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