Covid: Government using mobile phone firms to urge public to get booster jabs over festive period – reports

The Government is planning to send out text messages urging the public to get a Covid booster jab over the festive period, it has been reported.

The Guardian said that the Government had asked the UK’s biggest mobile operators – EE, O2, Vodafone and Three UK – to send a message on Boxing Day.

The newspaper added that the campaign, which would see messages sent on behalf of the Government to tens of millions of customers, is understood not to have been given final signoff yet.

But Hamish MacLeod, director at Mobile UK, the trade association for UK’s mobile network operators, EE, O2, Three and Vodafone, said the networks had agreed to send a “widespread text message alert”.

He added: “The Government has asked the mobile operators to deliver a widespread text message alert, and they have agreed to do this to help combat the national pandemic.”

The Guardian said that the message is likely to be on behalf of the NHS, with the text encouraging all adults to get an additional vaccination.

The paper reported that the proposed copy of the text message will say: “Get boosted now. Every adult needs a Covid-19 booster vaccine to protect against Omicron. Get your Covid-19 vaccine or booster. See NHS website for details.”

The PA news agency contacted the Cabinet Office for comment.