Covid: Leamington GP urges volunteers to join booster effort

All eligible over-18s who want a booster should be offered one by 31 December

A doctor has called for more volunteers to join the booster vaccination roll-out across Coventry and Warwickshire.

Dr Ollie Lawton, from Leamington Primary Care Network, said the NHS needed help from the public "to get us over the line".

He said of the 74,000 people in Leamington, a third had had a booster.

The prime minister announced all eligible over-18s who want a booster should be offered one by 31 December in the battle against the Omicron variant.

Boris Johnson said on Wednesday he was scrapping the 15-minute wait time after a jab had been administered to help make more appointments available.

Dr Lawton said the decision had been an "absolute game-changer",

He added: "We've been calling for it to be stood down, because we just don't see people having these reactions to it. That's allowed us just to ramp up, so we're now going to be delivering 12 times as many vaccines per hour."

He said there were two parts to running a mass vaccination programme, the first requiring clinical staff and the second being administrative.

"We need people telling patients where to park, where to walk through, hold elderly people's hands as they might be a bit unstable - all those things need volunteers.

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"Communities need to come together to get something done for the greater good," he said.

"But [we] really encourage people to come down [to volunteer], we need it. It's very simple, there's not huge amounts of paperwork you have to do, it's just a few checks and you're in and you're doing your bit to save lives."

Dr Ollie Lawton said of the 74,000 people in Leamington, a third have received a booster vaccination

The latest figures show Coventry has seen a greater rise in its Covid-19 rate than any other area of the West Midlands.

In the seven days up to and including 11 December, there was a 30% increase, with 415 new infections per 100,000 people.

North Warwickshire and Warwick also saw their rates increase by 20% and 10% respectively.

Coventry also has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the region, with just 63% of people over 12 double-jabbed. Only Birmingham has a poorer rate.

The MP for Warwick and Leamington, Matt Western, added: "We are facing a really serious crisis... the virus is spreading like wildfire, and of course what the health professionals are really worried about.

"So my call to the public is please, please get vaccinated, get this booster jab.

"Your help is desperately needed if people can just do their bit, play their part in making this happen and support our great GPs, our great NHS, in making this booster programme happen by the end of the year, that would be terrific."