Covid-19: Irish hospitality rules 'incentivising' vaccine uptake

The Republic of Ireland's hospitality rules have helped Covid-19 vaccination rates surpass Northern Ireland's, NI's chief scientific advisor has said.

About 76% of Ireland's adult population is fully vaccinated, compared to 72.1% in Northern Ireland.

Ireland requires people to prove they have received both jabs to enter indoor venues.

Prof Ian Young said the hospitality guidelines had "incentivised" vaccination.

Speaking to the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme, Prof Young said he would "clearly support" any policy which encouraged people to get vaccinated.

"For a long time the vaccination programme in Northern Ireland was leading in terms of the island of Ireland, we rolled it out really effectively," he said.

"Just over the weekend the Republic of Ireland has passed us. There are probably many reasons for that but I'm sure that one of the reasons has been that people are incentivised to get vaccinated as a result of wanting to get into the hospitality sector."

He said any move to introduce incentives to get vaccinated was a question for the executive.

"We've seen many countries require evidence of vaccination in order to allow people to travel and go on holidays. I think that's a significant incentive.

"Clearly the question of requiring vaccination for other settings is an important policy question and it's really a decision for ministers to make considering the benefits that that might bring, but also the fact that some people might feel disadvantaged."

The medical director of the Belfast Health Trust said between 60 to 70% of admissions to its hospitals had not been vaccinated.

"There are young people, in their 20s and 30s who are really sick and no amount of planning can foresee that situation," Dr Chris Hagan the BBC's The Nolan Show.

"Our modelling was based on the vast majority of the population being vaccinated and that hasn't happened in certain age groups.

"That is driving infection rates in the community, and that is driving admissions."

Over the weekend, several life-saving kidney transplants within the Belfast Health Trust area could not go ahead because not enough nurses were available to support surgeons.

The trust was offered healthy kidneys from deceased donors.

But they were turned down as the operations could not be carried out without sufficient staff.

The trust has apologised and blamed the staff shortage on a rise in the number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals.

The cancellation of the transplants came after some health trusts cancelled cancer surgeries at the end of July.

More than 30,000 people were vaccinated at walk-in centres in the Republic of Ireland over the weekend.

Paul Reid, the chief executive of the country's Health Service Executive, said the uptake at walk-in centres was "outstripping our expectations by far".

As of Sunday, 5,871,111 doses had been administered in the Republic - 3,319,049 of them first doses.

About 86% of the adult population has received at least one dose.

Overall in the UK, 72.7% of people aged over 18 have received both jabs while 88.6% have received at least one dose.

A total of 2,276,708 Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in Northern Ireland as of Tuesday afternoon.

The number of people who have received one dose of the vaccine stands at 1,220,430.

Over the weekend in Northern Ireland, from Friday 30 July to Sunday 1 August, 3,752 people in the 18 to 29 age group received their first dose.

A total of 9,899 vaccinations (first and second doses) were administered to people in that age group over the same period.

Féile an Phobail encouraged people to get a jab in west Belfast on Tuesday when it offered free passes to Féile Music Night for anyone getting a vaccine.

There were 500 free passes on offer.

Director Kevin Gamble said: "We thought how we can we drive up the vaccination programme in west Belfast and particularly get young people vaccinated.

"We came up with the idea of encouraging young people to come along, get their first dose of the vaccination and in return they would get a ticket for the diversionary night."

It's understood 154 people received a vaccination on Tuesday.

Joanna Hogg, the nurse in charge at the pop-up clinic, told BBC NI's Evening Extra there was "a really good buzz" as young people arrived.

"It's been a very good turn-out for the younger population. We're excited to see them," she said.

"We are here, ready and willing. Obviously we'd like to see bigger numbers coming through. But this is more of an opportunity for us to reach out to the younger population."

Ms Hogg said this was a first try and perhaps early morning and mid-week was not suitable for some younger people who might be either in bed or at work.