Liverpool's Public Health Director has urged people who tested positive for Covid over Christmas to now book a booster jab.
Everyone in the country is being urged to get a third booster dose, which has been shown to offer effective protection against getting seriously ill with Covid.
But the millions across the UK who caught Covid in December have had to wait 28 days before getting their booster.
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NHS England data shows 6.3 million people have missed their booster by six weeks or more, reports The Mirror.
Millions of people in the UK have now been sent reminders to book in for their boosters. as just 37.1million have had all three doses.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) says you are 85% less likely to end up in hospital if you have had a booster.
Now Professor Matt Ashton has urged people who contracted Covid over Christmas to book a booster jab.
Director of Public Health for Liverpool, Matt Ashton said to the ECHO : "People may think that Omicron is milder, and that may be true, but it certainly isn’t mild, and it’s likely that vaccination is doing most of the heavy lifting here. The simple fact is vaccination is working – it’s breaking the link between Covid—19 and serious illness.
"What we do know for sure is that the omicron variant spreads far more easily, and although rates in Liverpool are coming down they are still too high– around double what they were last autumn.
"The data shows us that the vaccination booster is reducing hospitalisations by 88% - but it also shows that a high proportion of those that do get seriously ill and end up needing treatment aren’t fully vaccinated.
"I know lots of people tested positive for Covid during December – so didn’t have an opportunity to get their booster. What I would say is that if it’s been at least 28 days since your infection, don’t delay getting it now.
"It is free, safe and effective and will give you additional protection from future infections, which is especially important as we don’t know how long natural immunity is lasting.
"This is evident from the number of people getting re-infected with Omicron after testing positive earlier last year with a different variant of Covid."
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