Covid: Volunteers sought for booster jab clinics

Clare White is one of many volunteers helping out at booster clinics

An army of volunteers has come forward to help in the fight against the Omicron Covid-19 variant, but more are needed, a charity has said.

Cat Wright, from Community360, said the Essex-based charity had about 500 volunteers about a year ago, when vaccines were rolled out.

They now have about 200 and are asking for more people come forward to help marshal queues and provide reassurance.

She said even those with only a few spare hours a week would be welcomed.

Some of those who have heeded the call to help out were keen to explain their reasons.

People queued on a damp and chilly day in Colchester to get their booster jabs

At one pop-up clinic in Culver Square in Colchester, Essex, volunteer Nicola Bridges said she was just there to "reassure people, and pick up on those people who are scared, and perhaps staying with them through to the vaccine".

Fellow volunteer Alex White said he worked on the principle that "you just have to try and be friendly to everybody".

Clare White added: "You're all here for the same reason - you're all kind of pulling together, trying to get through this."

When Community360 began helping out, Ms Wright said they had many more volunteers, but now a couple of hundred were spread across 18 vaccination sites in the county.

Cat Wright said her charity would welcome more volunteers

"Because of the end of the furlough scheme, people had to go back to work and they got their lives back when we were allowed out of lockdown, so we did see a reduction in volunteers, unfortunately," she said.

"What we would say is that we can work with people, so if anybody's got three or four hours that they can give a week, then we can work with that.

You can find out more information about volunteering to help with the NHS vaccine booster programme here.

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