Covid booster jabs offered for adults by end of January - PM

Booster jabs will be offered to everyone who is eligible by the end of January, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said.

All adults will be offered a booster jab three months after their second dose of the vaccine.

Mr Johnson said jabs would be prioritised according to age, with the NHS working down the list in five-year bands as was done previously.

Almost 18 million people in the UK have already had a booster jab.

Mr Johnson said England will have more than 1,500 community pharmacy sites to help with the rollout.

"There'll be temporary vaccination centres popping up like Christmas trees and we'll deploy at least 400 military personnel to assist the efforts of our NHS, alongside of course the fantastic jabs army of volunteers," he said at a Downing Street news conference.

He also urged people to wait to be contacted by the health service before booking their booster, saying: "Even if you have had your second jab over three months ago and you are now eligible, please don't try and book until the NHS says it is your turn."

Asked whether people should cancel Christmas parties, Mr Johnson said: "We don't want people to cancel such events and we think that overwhelmingly the best thing for kids is to be in schools."

He said instead, they were taking a "balanced and proportionate" approach to the particular risk that is posed by Omicron.

The booster campaign was ramped over fears of the Omicron variant, which may be more infectious.

A total of 22 cases of the new variant have so far been confirmed in the UK.