BOOST YOUR CHANCES
Don’t WAIT to be invited for your Covid booster jab – if you’re eligible book online
ELIGIBLE Brits have been urged to come forward for their coronavirus booster shots.
The additional vaccine is currently being rolled out to the most vulnerable in society as we head into the winter months.
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At the start of the booster rollout last month, those eligible were told that the NHS would contact them for their appointments.
Health minister Edward Argar this morning said people no longer needed to wait to be invited to get their booster coronavirus vaccine if the right amount of time had passed.
Speaking on Sky News, he said: "We've made a change, which is it's not just about waiting to be invited.
"If you get to the six months plus one week, go on the national booking system and book yourself in.
"There's also the other factor which does not delay but phases the rollout, which is the JCVI's current advice, which is don't have your booster until six months afterwards.
"So, if you look back six months, that cohort is starting to come through now."
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Mr Argar's comments echo Health Secretary Sajid Javid's who last night said that if you are in the eligible category that you shouldn't wait for the NHS to contact you and you should book it straight away.
Mr Javid, backing The Sun’s Give Britain a Booster campaign, last night warned it was vital to take up a third jab not just to save lives but to keep our freedoms, too.
But he put the country on notice that tougher measures could be on the horizon, saying: “If we don’t do our bit, get vaccinated, all those behavioural changes we can make, we are more likely to face restrictions as we head into winter?
“I think we’ve been really clear that we’ve all got a role to play.” And he said if booster rollouts remained sluggish and cases continued to soar “it would, of course, make it more likely we’re going to have more restrictions”.
Some eight million people are eligible for their booster but so far only four million have had shots. Ministers are launching an all-out offensive to drive up this number as they try to avoid a return to the restrictions.
The NHS is opening pop-up jabbing clinics and launching an advertising campaign to get people to book their injections.
How do you book your booster jab?
First you need to go to the dedicated NHS booking site.
You will only be able to book through the service if you are a frontline health or social care worker, you have been contacted by the NHS, or are aged 50 and over or aged 16 and over with a health condition that puts you at severe risk of Covid-19.
You can only book the booster if you had your last coronavirus vaccine six months ago.
You just need to book one slot - unlike booking the first and second dose when you were asked to book them both at once.
If you have recently had coronavirus then you should wait four weeks before booking your appointment.
To book your appointment you need to click the green 'book now' button.
You'll then be asked if you know your NHS number or not. If you have your NHS number it will make it a little bit faster to book, if not you then have to fill out all of your personal details.
Mr Javid also urged people to mask up on trains, meet outdoors if they can and take lateral flow tests every week.
He said: “With winter soon upon us, these little steps make a big difference.”
Figures reveal 5.5million of the 7.9million eligible have so far been invited for a booster jab.
Four million have already had it — leaving 1.5million who have not yet had the third shot.
Another 1.9 million people will be asked to head to their local GP or vaccination centre this week. Around 500,000 who live or work in social care will also be jabbed there.
All over-50s, people with serious health conditions and health and care workers already double-jabbed are being offered the booster six months after their second dose.
Our booster programme is vital to keeping us safe over the oncoming months
Sajid Javid
By the end of the rollout, medics hope to have given boosters to more than 30million.
So far in the UK 49.4 million people have received a first dose of the vaccine, with 45.4 million having had two jabs.
Mr Javid last night said: "Our booster programme is vital to keeping us safe over the oncoming months.
"Although vaccines offer powerful protection, we know the protection you get reduces over time especially in older people. Without delivering a top up we will see a real world impact.
"The boosters really could not be more important. We need to sustain the progress we have made as we could lose this progress if people don't take up the offers of vaccines."
The plea for people to come forward and have their jabs comes as some family doctors have said they can't deal with routine appointments and top-up vaccines.
Dr Richard Vautrey, GP chair at the British Medical Association, said: “To sign up for the booster programme, practices had to commit to continuing all routine care, which was not the case during the first phase of vaccinations.
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“It’s no surprise that many practices did not feel able to commit to the booster programme.”
Health officials confirmed some clinics had chosen to go back to normal work instead of offering jabs but could not say how many.
THE SUN SAYS
The Sun urges all readers to put rocket-boosters under the stuttering jabs rollout. Nothing is more vital to save lives and keep our freedoms this winter.
If you’re invited to get YOUR booster shot, don’t hesitate — especially if you are one of the 1.5million people who has been asked, but is yet to come forward.
Britain’s vaccine programme was a world-leading triumph, thanks in no small part to Sun readers who flocked to have theirs — and joined our Jabs Army to help others do the same.
The uptake was phenomenal. But we must all remember this: the drugs don’t CURE this hideous disease.
Some childhood inoculations last for life. Sadly that’s not so with a virus as unstable as Covid.
Yes, your Pfizer or AstraZeneca jabs provide powerful protection against infection, severe illness and death. But it is clear that, a few months on, the effect is starting to wane.
That makes regular boosters crucial, especially for over-50s.
And the booster rollout, unlike the astonishing pace with which the first two jabs were delivered, is too slow.
The vaccines have kept hospitalisations and deaths far lower than during the second wave last winter. But both are rising.
And a booster shot won’t just maximise your immunity, potentially saving your life and maybe your loved ones.
It will give Britain our best chance of swerving further crippling restrictions.
We have all loved near-normality returning this summer.
The prospect of social distancing, compulsory masks, closures and even lockdowns — just in time for Christmas — is bleak indeed.
The vaccination programme for teenagers has been plagued with problems.
With unvaccinated 12 to 15-year-olds comprising a large percentage of new cases, this must be urgently fixed.
Let’s keep Britain safe — and free.
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Back our Give Britain A Booster campaign to get Brits jabbed and save Christmas
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