All adults in the UK should receive a COVID-19 booster in order to help relieve the stress on the NHS this winter, think tank says.
A new report from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has warned that the NHS is ‘on the brink of disaster’ and urged the Government to ‘immediately prepare for an existential crisis this winter.’
The think tank argued that the health service is struggling under the combined pressures of COVID-19, a flu epidemic, the indirect effect of the cost-of-living crisis, an unprecedented elective-care backlog, and a depleted workforce.
In order to prepare – and maybe avert – the winter crisis, the report urged the Government to set up a winter-crisis taskforce and settle additional funding early.
It also called for the extension of public-facing COVID-19 and flu-vaccination strategies to all those aged over 18 and for the re-introduction of mask-wearing mandates on public transport and in confined spaces.
