All NHS health and social care staff will be offered a Covid vaccine as an “immediate” and “critical” priority amid growing anxiety from frontline workers and concerns over absence rates.
In an announcement today, NHS England said hospitals would play the lead role in vaccinating millions of staff and that most should have been inoculated by early February.
The move comes amid rising fears that parts of the NHS are close to collapse as a result of the steep rise in coronavirus infections and people being admitted to hospital, and that the difficulties are being compounded by record numbers of workers off sick or self-isolating.
It follows the stark warning from the chief medical officers of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on Monday that “many parts of the health systems in the four nations are already under immense pressure. We are not confident that the NHS can handle a further sustained rise in cases and without further action there is a material risk of the NHS in several areas being overwhelmed over the next 21 days.”
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