Christmas shoppers should be able to get their Covid-19 booster jabs at high street vaccine centres, Labour has said.
Pop-up vaccination centres in supermarkets and shopping centres would allow people to get their third shot while doing their Christmas shopping, the party has suggested.
It is calling for a “national effort” to increase the rate of booster shots after UK scientists found they offer up to 75 per cent protection against Omicron.
The variant is now spreading rapidly throughout the country, with 1898 confirmed cases in the UK, with a further 633 confirmed cases in the past 24 hours alone.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has warned Omicron is likely to overtake Delta as the dominant variant as early as next week as its findings show immunity gained after two doses of a Covid vaccine is radically reduced by the new strain.
Modelling on behalf of the UKHSA suggests that total infections – which is always a higher number than reported cases – could reach one million by the end of this month, although officials stressed this was based on there being no restrictions and the virus was able to circulate unchecked.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting is pressing the Government to “pull out all the stops” to meet the Prime Minister’s target of having offered a booster jab to all those aged over 18 by the end of January.
Mr Streeting’s team said that without an increased rate of vaccinations, the target was likely to be missed by almost two weeks.
Labour’s plan, as well as recommending establishing pop-up centres, would see as many as possible of the vaccination sites that were closed over the summer reopened, with the extra capacity used to provide booster appointments to all those eligible.
Retired doctors and volunteers should also be mobilised to hit the target of delivering at least 500,000 boosters per day, with a taskforce created to help deliver jabs to the most vulnerable, including the housebound.
Mr Streeting said: “We want to make sure everyone can enjoy Christmas safely this year, as well as protecting our NHS. The best way to do that is boosting the booster campaign.”
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The latest seven-day average shows 384,676 people received their booster per day over the past week.
A Government spokesperson said on Saturday: “We’ve been clear throughout that vital vaccines and boosters are our best line of defence against this virus and that is why we are urging people to come forward as quickly as possible as they become eligible.
“Plan B remains a proportionate response based upon what we know, so we encourage everyone to follow the rules by wearing a face covering, working from home if you can, testing regularly and coming forward for your booster when called.”
