Sheffield booster vaccinations: People queue outside walk-in centres to get booster jabs

Dozens of people formed a queue outside St Peter’s and St Oswald’s church hall on Abbeydale Road this morning (December 13).

The site has been operating as a jab clinic for appointments and walk-ins for months, and after the PM’s last night’s address to the nation, the queue for walk-ins extended down the drive and back along Abbeydale Road itself.

Those with an appointment joined a separate queue but still faced waits of up to 20 minutes as people were taken inside in batches.

Inside, staff rapidly took people’s details and delivered shots. But wait times, which used to be 15 minutes after the jab to check for an adverse reaction, were slashed to 10 minutes or fewer due to all the chairs being full.

Despite the long queues people remained patient even as it came on to drizzle.

Both Sheffield’s walk-in centres – at St Oswald’s Church near Abbeydale Road, and Heeley Parish Church – will be very busy in coming weeks following the Prime Minister’s new target to vaccinate every over-18 by the new year.

And although booster jabs are not yet open to all of that age group they are now available to anybody over 30-years-old. They can be booked through the NHS booking service, or by attending a walk-in clinic.

Those who are 18-and-upwards can start booking their boosters, or attending walk-in clinics, from Wednesday December 15

How to book a booster: What to do in Sheffield as Government plans to jab every adult by New Year

Sheffield’s director of public health Greg Fell has stressed that the booster jabs are the best line of defence against the new Omicron variant of Covid.

He added: "Omicron appears to be more transmissable than the Delta variant. The maths is that if it is more transmissable then there will be more cases and more people hospitalised.”

And he said the new Plan B restrictions were put in place to enable a vaccination drive.

He explained: "The policy is to delay the spread of Omicron. The purpose of delaying the spread is to maximise vaccine related immunity. We can reduce the number of cases, and pressure on the NHS, by ensuring people have their first and second jabs and boosters.”

The Prime Minister has brought forward the target of offering a Covid-19 booster jab to every adult by a month.

He said everyone eligible aged 18 and over in England will have the chance to get their booster before the new year.

Analysis by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has found that the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines provide “much lower” levels of protection against symptomatic infection with Omicron compared with Delta.

But the UKHSA said a booster dose gives around 70 per cent to 75 per cent protection against symptomatic infection with Omicron.

Mr Fell added: “All the indications are that the vaccine will protect you against serious illness,” he said. “The most important thing any of us can do is get the first two doses, and, as many of us have had them, get the booster when you become eligible.”