Londoners urged to get the jab as troops deployed to support NHS

Londoners have been urged to use their “best weapon” against Covid – getting jabbed – as the military was deployed to support hospitals in the capital under great strain.

Some 200 armed forces personnel are being made available to hospitals across the capital, which has been the epicentre of the Omicron outbreak with a huge upsurge in cases.

The MoD said the deployment includes 40 military medics and 160 general duty personnel to help fill gaps caused by absences due to NHS staff unable to work because they are ill or having to self-isolate.

They will be deployed in 40 teams of five – comprising one medic and four support personnel – and will be targeted at areas where the need is greatest.

It is expected they will be “on task” for the next three weeks.

London minister Paul Scully stressed bringing in the military was not a normal situation as the Omicron wave has swept through the city with extraordinary speed.

He told Sky News: “When you talk about armed forces around hospitals, they are not sitting there in combats…its more people helping out the undoubted pressures on the NHS and that’s why we want people to get out and get vaccinated and get boosted because that remains our best weapon against the pressures on the NHS and against Covid as we learn to live with Covid.”

Asked on LBC Radio whether the Omicron wave appeared to be easing in London, he added: “It’s looking encouraging, the trend at the moment, but clearly we still need to be on our guard because there is still pressure on the NHS in London.”

Official figures suggest Covid cases may have peaked in the capital and hospitalisations could also be plateauing, though, it is too early to say either with any certainly given infections are still rising among elderly Londoners who are more vulnerable to the virus and the effect of the return to work and school is yet to be seen.

Mr Scully also stressed the high level of staff absences in the NHS in the city due to so many people having to self-isolate given the spread of the disease.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the British Medical Association, told Sky News “we have never known this level of staff absence before” and that thousands of patients were suffering the “consequences” of the pressures on the NHS.

He said although Omicron was milder, people were still falling seriously ill with Covid-19 and hospitals were dealing with the NHS treatment backlog, with almost six million people on the waiting list.