Boris announcement overwhelms West Berkshire jab walk-ins

The Government-fuelled, pre-Christmas booster rush has seen people coming as far afield as Cornwall to get a jab in West Berkshire.

The Government is stepping up its drive to get more people both vaccinated and boosted – suggesting people should go to walk-in centres.

But there are currently only two walk-in centres nearby. One in Reading, which has stopped walk-ins today, and a pop-up in Hungerford.

Newbury’s Kennet Shopping centre vaccine centre, which has upped the number of booking slots, is now only taking those with prior bookings.

Read More: "We are inundated. It has gone mad."

That leaves the Hungerford Cricket Club pop-up clinic as the only booster centre for miles.

In an email sent to volunteers and seen by the Newbury Weekly News, it is reportedly seeing people turning up from as far afield as Bristol, Southampton and Cornwall.

The email goes on to say: “We have stopped accepting new bookings on the council’s website for the fear of being overwhelmed.

“While it’s great people are coming forward, ideally we wanted to support the local population who were struggling to access their boosters.”

Boris Johnson has announced that England will move to its Covid Winter Plan B in an attempt to stop the spread of the Omicron variant.

Face mask rules are being extended to cover most indoor public venues and vaccine passports are being introduced for larger venues.

Parliament will debate the measures with a vote expected to take place on Tuesday, December 14.

The restrictions are set to expire six weeks after implementation, with a review after three weeks.

That means there will be a review on or close to Tuesday, January 4.

The measures are expected to pass, despite reports suggesting at least 30 Conservative MPs are already planning to vote against the Government.

Where to go:

In Hungerford, the booster walk-in pop up centre at the cricket ground is currently running on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday this week between 10am and 6pm.

In Reading, the Broad Street Mall mass vaccination site is no longer available for walk-ins.