Practices in England are to get a significant increase in payments for COVID vaccinations next week as the government seeks to maintain them at a million a day.

NHS England has offered £20 a vaccination throughout the holiday week, starting with this Saturday, Christmas Day, it has been revealed. Practices have also been offered relief from other tasks as an incentive for them to deploy staff to the vaccination programme, the Health Service Journal reported. Nearly four million booster doses were delivered in England last week.

As part of efforts to reduce paperwork, employees will be allowed to self-certify sickness for up to 28 days, rather than seven days, until 26 January. Benefits services will also cease to ask for fit notes.

The move came as the British Medical Association warned the rapidly spreading Omicron variant could see thousands of practice staff off sick by the end of the week. According to BMA estimates, based on case numbers doubling every two days, as many as 15,800 practice staff could be off sick by Christmas Day.

BMA chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul said: “We’re already seeing services being affected by staff absences, and these estimates show it could get far, far worse. Without enough staff, appointments and treatments will need to be cancelled or postponed and waits for care in both GP surgeries and hospitals will rise even further, compromising the level of care remaining staff can offer. This is not to mention the impact it could have on the NHS’s capacity to deliver the booster programme itself.”