Covid booster: Huge queues form in Sheffield in bid to give 30,000 Covid boosters

This weekend in Sheffield has been named ‘The Great Vaccine Weekender’ as NHS staff pull out all the stops to deliver a record amount of booster jabs.

And the public responded as long queues formed outside Heeley Parish Church on Gleadless Road which has been turned into a vaccination clinic.

It is being run by 1AST Pharmacy, on Abbeydale Road, and dispenser Eleesha Khan said queues had been forming from first thin in the morning.

"For once, we’re happy to see queues,” she said. “It means people want to get the jab and that’s good news.

"People are waiting up to 20 minutes, but everyone is fine with that. They just want to get the booster jab.”

Sheffield’s public health chief Greg Fell has expressed his worry about the more transmissible Omicron variant of Covid-19 and says city health services will be ‘exceptionally busy.’

Louise Haigh MP for Sheffield Heeley, said: “One of the main reasons to implement Plan B restrictions was to slow the spread of the new Covid variant Omicron and to allow as many people as possible to have their booster jab or their first and second jabs.

“While the majority of the public are responding to this call and coming out in their droves to have their jab, there are still a small number of people who have not had a vaccination. Even more worrying is that there is a small proportion of people who are Clinically Extremely Vulnerable who have not had their vaccination.

“I’m encouraging everyone to come out and have your jab if you’ve not already done so. If you’re offered an appointment, please take this up as soon as possible. There are a number of walk-in clinics taking place across the city and you can also book an appointment via the NHS website.

“As a community, we have already sacrificed so much to protect ourselves and others and now, we must do this again. So please, Grab a Jab this weekend.”