Long queues outside city centre vaccination centre as people 'turned away'

People hoping to be vaccinated against Covid-19 have reportedly been turned away from a city centre jab clinic today.

It comes the morning after Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed the nation, urging the simple message: 'Get Boosted Now'.

Huge queues were pictured outside various Manchester walk-in vaccination clinics today, amid a rise in Omicron variant cases.

READ MORE:Covid LIVE updates as cases surge 30% in a week and hundreds queue for Omicron booster jabs

This afternoon, people arriving at the vaccination centre at Manchester Town Hall say they were told there were not enough jabs to meet the surge in demand.

Despite opening at 3pm, volunteers said queues started to form by 2pm today.

People also lined up 'for hours' in the rain for their booster jabs outside the Whalley Range vaccination clinic today.

And yesterday evening, the NHS booking website crashed as a surge of people tried to book their booster dose.

Videos this afternoon showed a long queue forming outside the walk-in centre, at St Peter's Square.

Manchester city council has hit back saying the city had to try and 'ramp up capacity overnight' following Boris Johnson's announcement.

People have now been urged to try and book an appointment to avoid being turned away at the clinics.

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One person took to Twitter to say they were turned away from the centre at 3.30pm - despite it having an online closing time of 7pm.

Another person told the M.E.N. that volunteers admitted they were running short on booster doses.

They said: "I turned up just before 4.30 and there were volunteers at the back of the line who said they had already had to close off the queue for the boosters.

"He told me they only just had enough for those in the queue and said the centre, which opened at 3, already had queues outside an hour before.

"They then suggested coming back later in the week."

Councillor Joanna Midgley, Deputy Leader of Manchester City Council said: “From the clinicians administering doses to the volunteer marshals managing queues outside vaccination centres I know that everyone is working their heart out to get booster jabs in arms.

“Almost overnight we as a city have had to ramp up our capacity to administer jabs and with the number of people now eligible in the hundreds of thousands this is no mean feat.

"Everything is now being done to maximise capacity.

“We are so grateful to see thousands of people attending clinics today and know it represents the eagerness of ordinary Mancunians to play their part in beating this wave of Omicron.

"The situation will improve and people will get their booster jabs.

“In the interim I would ask people to book an appointment where possible, and keep their eyes on both the Council’s social media pages, as well as Manchester Health and Care Commissioning for updates on walk-in clinics.”

Opening times and the available number of vaccines at local clinics can be checked online at the NHS website.

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