Covid autumn booster jabs Sheffield: Vaccinations underway across city this week

One city GP confirmed the roll out as his practice launched into giving the first jabs to protect against the Omicron variant this week as part of a winter drive to vaccinate the vulnerable.

Dr Josh Meek, GP at Firth Park Surgery, and clinical director of the Foundry network of GP practices in the city, believes the jabs are important, and is seeing strong uptake.

He said: “We’ve started giving what are called the autumn boosters – that’s a booster Covid vaccination for certain at-risk groups of Covid for over winter. We’re using the Moderna vaccine for everyone now, and that's because it protects against the original variants of Covid as well as the newer, more dominant Omicron version.”

He said uptake was ‘really good’

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“We have two fully booked clinics going this afternoon, right now, downstairs,” he added. “We have lots of fully booked clinics going on next week where we’re vaccinating all of our care homes. So far everyone seems very positive. I’ve had lots of extra patients asking about it. We’ve had a few patients opportunistically vaccinated while they’re here for other things, because they’ve asked, so its been very positive.”

He said it was important for people to get boosters. Viruses were usually more widespread during winter, and immunity would have reduced over the last year.

Dr Meek said his surgery and others in its network were carrying the vaccines at their own practices, but others may carry them out at local hubs. He added it was a decision networks were free to make themselves, but his practice had found it got the best results in terms of up-take running them in the GP practices.

Among those getting their boosters was nearby resident William Eagle. He said he thought getting the jab was a good idea. He said: “We rely on the NHS to make these decisions for us.”

Another, Arthur Mortimer said he had not needed much persuading to have a booster: “I’ve been jabbed before – it’s no problem,” he said.

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