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Covid booster jabs will stop NHS being overwhelmed this winter, vaccines chief claims

Coronavirus booster jabs will help prevent the NHS being overwhelmed this winter, a vaccine chief claimed on Monday.

Top-up doses should cut the numbers of patients who are admitted to hospital, according to Oxford Vaccine Group director Professor Sir Andrew Pollard.

It comes after the Government said the autumn booster programme, which starts next week, “aims to increase immunity in those at higher risk of severe Covid-19 during winter”.







A pharmacist prepares a Covid-19 vaccination booster shot
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Getty Images)

Sir Andrew said the population was well-vaccinated, but it needed people to take up future doses “to reduce the risk, not of severe Covid admissions, but admissions to hospital where Covid is a co-factor with other conditions, such as being very frail or having another health condition”.

The plea to take up the jabs comes as an Ipsos poll reveals fears about Covid have eased.

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