WORRIED pensioners have been turned away from walk-in vaccination centres, after being told they were unable to receive their booster jabs.

John and Catherine Rayner, 70 and 69, of Coggeshall, and Samuel Henry Davis, 89, of Mistley, all tried to get their dose of Covid vaccine but were instead refused a top-up due to lack of availability.

North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group said there are no supply issues or walk-in shortages and the absence of booster jabs is purely due to the high demand of vaccine appointments.

However, pensioners said they had been left worried by the lack of availability.

Mr Davis had to queue up for half an hour in the cold to get his booster jab at Manningtree’s Co-op vaccine bus but was then turned away.

His daughter, Allison French, 56, of Mistley, said: “We arrived to join a queue of over 50 people and it was freezing cold.

We were turned away only after waiting there for so long. My father is tiny. There were a lot of elderly people and nobody should be exposed to that.”

Mr and Mrs Rayner were also unsuccessful at getting their third dose of vaccine at Colchester United’s Stadium.

They said: “Ten members of staff were standing there twiddling their thumbs and telling people they cannot get in walk-in boosters.

“It is a total waste for everybody’s time and it is another example of the absolute fiasco that is going on.”

A spokesman for North East Essex CCG said: “Walk-ins are only run when booked appointments are empty, so when the appointments fill up, there are only a finite number of walk-in vaccinations available.

“We’re getting lots of booked appointments through, which is a good thing.”

Due to the high number of people booking appointments, Colchester United Stadium has currently withdrawn the walk-in offer.

More than 813,000 people have received a booster jab in the East of England so far.

A list of walk-in centres could be found at sneevaccine.org.uk.