More than 10,000 jabs a day to be offered in Shropshire by the weekend

Health bosses have set a goal of jabbing up to 160,000 people in the county by New Year’s Eve – including offering a booster to the 137,000 people aged 18 and over.

It is part of a national drive to see all of the 18 million eligible over-18s across England offered a jab by the end of the month.

The county's vaccination service has been vaccinating in excess of 3,000 people a day in recent weeks, but that number is rising fast as a result of increasing capacity in community pharmacies, a scaled-up programme in the GP-led primary care networks and extended opening hours in the region’s hospital hubs and vaccination centres.

Capacity is anticipated to hit 10,500 a day by Saturday.

Angie Wallace, senior responsible officer for the county's Covid-19 vaccination programme, said: “This is an ambitious programme but we are confident that we can deliver it.

“Our vaccination team, and all of our health and care partners, are working incredibly hard to increase vaccination provision to ensure everyone eligible is protected as quickly possible across our communities.

“Everyone aged 30 and over is able to book their booster jab via the national booking system and that will be extended to everyone aged 18 and over from Wednesday.

“People will be able to access walk-in clinics as well, but pre-booked slots will be prioritised."

The Omicron variant was first identified by South African doctors last month, and has shown to be more easily transmissible than previous strains.

While early evidence suggested that younger people were suffering milder symptoms, there is not yet enough data to say how severely it will impact on older populations.

Hospitals in the UK are now starting to admit Omicron patients, and the first death attributable to the variant was recorded on Monday.

“All the evidence shows us that the Omicron variant is spreading like wildfire across the country, and will be the dominant strain in all areas within a matter of days,” added Angie.

“Unvaccinated people and those who have had just one or two doses do not have sufficient protection – the clinical evidence shows that people need a booster jab to improve their chances of having good immunity against suffering with symptoms.

“Over 18s are eligible for a booster three months after their second dose, and can actually book a slot two months after that second dose."

Steve Ellis, deputy senior responsible officer for the county's vaccination service, has offered assurances that there are "sufficient vaccines" to achieve the target.

"The Covid-19 vaccination team is working incredibly hard to increase vaccination provision to ensure everyone eligible is protected as quickly possible across our communities," he said.

“We are working with all our sites to take further steps to increase what they can offer, and new appointments are being added every day across our vaccination services. We are aiming to be offering more than 10,500 appointments per day by Saturday and in the last two weeks we have more than doubled the number of available appointments.

“GP practices are working hard to deliver booster jabs to their eligible patients and will be contacting patients and asking them to book an appointment.

"Any GP patients with non-urgent appointments or elective surgeries which need to be cancelled to enable the booster jabs delivery will be contacted directly by their practice. Please do not ring or walk into your local GP surgery requesting a vaccine or booster dose."

Shropshire Council says it will also be working with the NHS to pinpoint areas where the need for boosters is greatest and targeting efforts at these locations, possibly with pop-up vaccination clinics, in addition to those already in place.

To support the vaccination effort, some services may be temporarily suspended to help redeploy staff and ensure essential key services are not affected by staff illness or self-isolation.

Rachel Robinson, Shropshire Council’s director of public health, said: “The council is ready to support the NHS however it can, and to be there to help ensure we keep people in Shropshire healthy, and do all we can to support businesses and make our county a great place to be.

“We expect details of more ways we can support the vaccination booster programme in the next few days. It will require another great effort by our staff and our partners, who have worked tirelessly through the pandemic. We have done it before and are ready to do so again.

“There may be an impact on some council services as we redeploy people onto this priority, but we hope that the public will appreciate why and that this is the right thing to do."

Some vaccination sites are offering a walk-in service for 18s and over, but with demand high and queues at many sites, people are being asked to be patient and continue to check the details of walk-in and pop-ups at stwics.org.uk