Did you know there are 14 times as many coronavirus patients this year as there were last year, same time? The NHS's chief executive has further revealed that 4.5 million individualshave yet to receive their first immunization shot.
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These facts have led NHS to urge the citizens of the U.K. to get their COVID jabs,as the burden on hospitals keep increasing.
Moving up the pace
The NHS now has made provisions to ensure smoother flow of immunisation shots and availability of appointment dates, which can be booked one-month prior to being eligible for a jab. Once the appointment date is locked, the registered people will be split in groups; as soon as the particular group is called, they get inoculated immediately.
This is part of the government's effort to vaccinate as many people as possible in an attempt to have a COVID-free Christmas, as the flu is predicted to rise. It is the time when most Britons come indoors to socialize—where the virus spreads readily.
Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care said:
For those not yet eligible, please help your parents, grandparents or vulnerable loved ones get their jabs—it could save their life.
A difficult winter
Javid states that it is a ‘national mission’ to come together and play the dutiful part as citizensof the U.K., in order to have a restriction-less Christmas.Half a million adults had visited the NHS to get their first COVID shot since September. Amanda Pritchard, the chief executive of the NHS, has cautioned that the coming months would be difficult:
There is no doubt that the NHS is running hot and there are some very real pressures on health and social care.
We have had 14 times the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 than we saw this time last year. We also had a record number of A&E attendance and a record number of 999 calls.
Pritchard also advised everyone who has not yet received a COVID vaccine to do so, describing the offer as ‘evergreen.’
