Two jabs are not enough to protect symptomatic infection from omicron, but a booster dose provides “strong protection”, says Sajid Javid.
More than four in 10 UK adults have now received a third dose (see 4.16pm), he adds, with more than half a million boosters given across the UK.
“Two weeks ago we announced we would offer every eligible adult a booster by the end of January, but in response to the omicron emergency, and as the Prime Minister announced yesterday evening, we’re bringing that target forward by a month,” Mr Javid says.
“From this morning anyone over 18 can walk in to a vaccination centre, and from Wednesday they can book online via the NHS website. The UK Government will also provide whatever support is needed to accelerate vaccinations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
“We have the jabs. The challenge now is to get them into the arms. To meet our ambitious target, the NHS will need to deliver a record number of jabs. Until now the highest number of jabs we’ve delivered in a single day was over 840,000. We’ll not only need to match that but we will need to beat that every day. But we can, and we’ve got a plan to try and do it.”
