The Government will provide £22.5m funding to support the 60 local authority areas with the lowest Covid vaccine uptake, it has announced.
It will be used to fund additional pop-up vaccination centres in places of worship and to set up new vaccine centres in prominent areas in local communities.
The funding, which was confirmed by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, will also help councils to identify barriers to accessing accurate information and to provide tailored support.
This could include linking patients to GP practices or organising phone calls and helplines for patients who are digitally excluded.
In addition, the Department confirmed 900 volunteers will be deployed to 21 frequently visited areas from today to provide accurate information on the booster and vaccine programmes, including Liverpool One Shopping Centre, King’s Cross Station and Brighton Pier.
Currently, more than 25 million booster doses have been administered in the UK, with nearly 1.7 million delivered in England this weekend.
The programme was accelerated last week in response to the Omicron variant, with the initial January deadline brought forward to December.
However, it has been reported that the variant is ‘already’ causing absences across the NHS workforce, with the BMA warning as many as 50,000 staff could be isolating with Covid on Christmas.
