Armed forces drafted in to help deliver boosters amid Omicron surge

The Ministry of Defence has confirmed hundreds of military personnel are to be drafted in.

Armed forces drafted in to help deliver boosters amid Omicron surge MOD

Members of the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force are being drafted in to help the NHS get Covid booster jabs into arms across the UK.

More than 100 members of the armed forces will assist in Scotland, while over 600 have been made available to NHS England.

Defence secretary Ben Wallace said: “We have rapidly mobilised service personnel to work alongside our dedicated health services to accelerate the vaccine booster programme.

“Our armed forces will help to get vaccines into arms as quickly as possible as we continue our efforts to support the UK’s response to the pandemic.”

It comes after St John Ambulance made an urgent appeal for volunteers to help the vaccination effort.

The charity’s head of community response, Adam Williams, said: “St John Ambulance recruited and trained almost 30,000 vaccination volunteers – including 20,000 vaccinators – between November and March.

“If everyone who trained to vaccinate with St John steps forward now, even for just two six-hour shifts, we will have more than enough people to do everything that’s required of us over the next few weeks and help the nation get ahead of the Omicron variant.”

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