Much like a broken record, we’re here to explain another round of COVID news. And someone else hoping to break records is prime minister Boris Johnson, who tonight announced a swathe of new measures to combat the spread of the Omicron variant. So what’s been announced?
What?
Boris Johnson has pledged to break previous vaccine records by giving a COVID booster to every eligible UK adult before the New Year. This translates to around 1 million vaccines being given per day between now and the end of the year.
Why?
We have previously written that the Omicron variant seems to be more transmissible than Delta, and therefore more people are likely to become infected (although currently it doesn’t seem to cause more serious illness). However, the government suggests that the large number of people it will infect will lead to more people in hospital, but with fewer NHS staff running and maintaining these services due to being in self-isolation. If this is the case, it is a dangerous course of events and the government insists steps must be taken to avert it.
The government believes the key to getting on top of the potential explosion of infections is to increase the number of people who have received a booster. If infections increase to unmanageable levels, the threat of further lockdowns or restrictions on freedoms becomes much higher.
How (will this affect you)?
To quickly deliver millions of vaccinations, the government is proposing a number of measures:
- Enlisting the army to set up and staff vaccine centres
- GPs asked to cancel appointments to dedicate more resources to vaccine delivery
- Non-urgent medical personnel in hospitals being redeployed to assist with vaccinating patients
- Extending opening hours and appointments seven days a week at vaccine sites.
If you are a member of the armed forces or work in non-urgent medical services, you may be learning how to deliver vaccines very soon!
More importantly, if you’re a patient it looks like appointments at the GP and the hospital may become even more difficult to get. The NHS continues to work tirelessly, but unfortunately if GPs are spending more time vaccinating, then inevitably it likely means less time seeing patients. It is also likely that waiting times in A&E will go up as more people hope to skip the lines at the GP. Try these tips to get seen more quickly in A&E.
We also have top tips about what to do instead of heading straight for A&E – such as 111, minor injuries, or urgent care centres.
The silver lining, the government hopes, is that the delivery of millions of booster jabs will prevent the catastrophe of another lockdown scenario in the New Year which would almost certainly cancel even more appointments and surgeries.
If you would like to book your booster jab, here’s a link to the NHS website. Be warned, there’s currently a queue.
As always, best wishes from myHSN.
