Sajid Javid said putting the “booster programme on steroids” is the UK’s main form of defence.
It comes as boosters have been extended to 18 to 39-year-olds and people will be able to get them three months after their second dose in a race against another possible Covid wave.
The Health Secretary said no one wants to see the return of lockdown as the UK battles against the Omicron variant.
In response to Richard Drax, he said: “No-one wants to see those kinds of measures, but Mr Drax I’m sure will agree with me that, first let me agree with him that Covid is with us to stay and we need to learn to live with it, and the best way I think we can do that is with the primary form of defence that we’ve got, which is our vaccination programme, and I hope he agrees with me that we’re absolutely right to basically put the booster programme on steroids because that will really help us.”
The emergence of the new variant saw a tightening of restrictions by the Government over the weekend, and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has announced booster jabs will be extended to all over-18s.
