2021 has been a hugely challenging year for all of us and despite the uncertainty we currently face with Omicron, I have every faith the New Year will be a better one. Evidence suggests getting a booster jab raises our protection back up to high levels. That is why the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson announced the offer of a booster to everyone over 18 by the New Year. In Chichester, once again, our local teams are doing fantastic work.
Already the Chichester Alliance of Medical Practices (ChAMP) has banded together to open a new site at Sidlesham Football Club. The teams running the new site are a collection of NHS staff and volunteers who previously ran the Selsey and Tangmere centres during the initial roll-out. I want to say a massive thank you to everyone involved in setting up and running the new site, and I am looking forward to seeing the team in-person early next year. I also want to thank everyone who’s worked on the vaccine rollout throughout this year, from the NHS trusts and bodies to the local councils, emergency services and our Armed Forces. This has been a massive undertaking, which is still ongoing as all our local sites are expanding their services, including at Sidlesham where the current operations are due to double to 3,000 jabs per week.
As a country I am hugely proud of the role we’ve played; sharing our knowledge and findings in the international effort to tackle COVID-19. So far the UK has contributed around a quarter of the world’s genomic samples alerting the world to new variants. Plus, we are a major donor to COVAX which is helping to vaccinate developing nations. As of 17 December, the programme has provided over 738 million doses to 144 participants.
Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and happy New Year.
