‘Don’t rely solely on drop-ins for booster jabs’
ISLANDERS are being advised to attend allocated vaccine appointments, rather than rely on drop-ins, as the roll-out of the booster speeds up.
It is aimed that all over-18s will be offered a booster by the end of January.
To cope, the community vaccination centre at Beau Sejour is working towards opening seven days a week and vaccinating up to 1,000 people a day.
Vaccine drop-ins have become a regular feature of social media, but a States spokesman said it was focusing on appointments, as this was the most efficient way to hopefully reach the target.
‘Letters will be sent to all those over the age of 18 – we are currently starting with older age groups – offering a specific appointment slot and we are asking everyone to do all that they can to make their appointment,’ he said.
‘We are asking employers to please support their staff in making their appointment. We are also prioritising inviting all 16- and 17-year-olds who are due their second dose. It is possible that ad-hoc drop-ins will be utilised should there be a window of time when the Community Vaccination Centre is quieter than expected, as our goal is to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible. However, we would advise islanders against relying on there being a drop-in as these will now only take place if the CVC has the capacity for them.’
The push comes as cases of the new Omicron variant in the UK shoot up, with more than 200 found.
However, cases in the island have been dropping. After reaching a high of more than 900 on Thursday, the number dropped back to 871 over the weekend. This followed the discovery of 245 new cases on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and 286 recoveries.
There was also a dip in the seven-day average graph for the number of positive PCRs. About half of over-50s have had a booster dose and 95% of adults have had at least one dose of vaccine. However, the Guernsey vaccine statistics have not been updated for two weeks.
