Who is now eligible for a booster vaccine? Anyone over the age of 18 who had their second jab more than three months before is now eligible to have their booster. However, until Wednesday the under-30s are unable to book their jab using the NHS’s online portal, but they should be able to turn up at a walk-in centre.
Are there problems with the NHS vaccinations booking service? The system struggled to cope as thousands of people tried to get online and book their jab. However, the NHS insisted that the website was working and 390,000 people were able to book a vaccine using the system yesterday.
How long will I have to wait at a walk-in centre? It depends where you go — but yesterday people reported waiting up to five hours to get their jab. Ministers insist that they will open many more walk-in centres in the coming days with the aim of giving a million doses a day in the run-up to Christmas. The NHS is encouraging people to book if they can, but people wanting to get their jab immediately are likely to have to wait.
If I want to book a jab rather than turn up at a walk in centre, am I guaranteed to get it by December 31? The government’s pledge is that everyone who wants a jab will be able to book it by December 31 — not necessarily have it. However, ministers insist that over the coming days capacity will be rapidly ramped up and new appointments made available. Nevertheless, much of this additional capacity will be in new seven day a week walk-in centres, so if people want to get their jab at the earliest convenient opportunity then this is probably the best option.
Will I be able to see a GP face-to-face before Christmas or will they all be giving vaccinations? The government says that some non-urgent GP appointments will need to be postponed as the NHS prioritises the vaccination programme. Some surgeries were yesterday cancelling all routine appointments until the New Year as they were told to pause routine care to redeploy staff to vaccination. However, the government insists that anyone in urgent need should not be put off contacting their GP or attending A&E.
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If I come into contact with a Covid-19 case, do I need to self-isolate again if I am double vaccinated? No — but you do need to take a lateral flow test every day for a week. If any of those tests come back positive, then you have to isolate for ten days from point of symptoms or a positive test.
How do I get lateral flow tests? You should be able to order them online. However, people who tried yesterday were told that there were “no more home tests available” and to “try again later”. The UK Health Security Agency said that the problem was delivery capacity and that it had not run out of tests. Ministers are promising to increase daily deliveries in the coming days.
The other option is to pick them up from a chemist. However, you will still need to fill in an online form and receive a code to give to the pharmacy before they will hand over the tests.
The government insists that there are no issues with the number of lateral flow tests available — merely supply problems in getting them out to the front line.
