Birmingham's Christmas Market to give Covid boosters two years after world's first dose in Coventry
Birmingham's famous Frankfurt Christmas Market will give out Covid-19 booster jabs from tomorrow (December 9).
It comes exactly two years since the world's first Covid-19 vaccine was given to Margaret Keenan at University Hospital Coventry.
For the next three Fridays, December 9, 16, and 23, visitors will be able to receive their vaccine's from a special stall at the market in Victoria Square.
Health leaders are urging people to get boosted ahead of Christmas, as winter illnesses rise.
The NHS is urging anyone eligible for their booster to come forward - as there are just two weeks to go until Christmas - and as socialising is due to increase.
People must be over 50, a health or social care worker, carer, or have a condition that means they are at risk or are immunosuppressed to be eligible for a Covid booster.
More than 143 million Covid-19 vaccines have been administered by the NHS since the vaccination programme began.
NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard warned health services are facing mounting pressure and for people to get jabbed to help reduce pressure on the NHS.
She said: "The unparalleled success of the life-saving NHS Covid-19 vaccination programme, which began exactly two years ago when the NHS administered the first covid vaccine in the world outside a clinical trial, has been the single most important reason we have been able to get back to a pre-pandemic way of life.
"The determination and dedication of NHS staff and volunteers up and down the country to respond with extraordinary speed and precision to rollout the vaccine is something we can all look back on with great pride - delivering more than 143 million doses so far - and staff are continuing to give hundreds of thousands of covid and flu jabs every single day to protect us all from serious illness.
"The health service is currently facing huge pressure from all angles - and while covid may feel like a thing of the past - we continue to deal with thousands of covid hospitalisations as well as the resurgence of flu and other respiratory viruses.
The NHS estimates around 6.4 million have a condition that means they are at risk while people are able also to self-declare on the National Booking Service.