Covid-19: Swann sets target of 90% of NI jabbed for Covid-19

Health Minister Robin Swann has said the number of people being admitted to hospital with Covid-19 would be cut by half if another 5% of adults in Northern Ireland were vaccinated.

About 86% of adults in Northern Ireland have had at least one jab for Covid-19.

Mr Swann told BBC News NI that hitting the target of 90% would take "pressure off our system".

He said hospitals were under strain due to the "high numbers of Covid-positive patients coming in".

"Just over 85% of our adult population is vaccinated - another 5% would see our hospital admissions decrease by 50%," he said.

"We are seeing the under-40s especially making up high percentages of positive cases - between two thirds and three quarters of those testing positive are in that age group which correlates with low vaccine uptake."

On Thursday, nine more coronavirus-related deaths were reported in Northern Ireland.

Another 1,963 people have tested positive for the virus.

About 70% of people with Covid-19 who are in hospital intensive care units (ICUs) have not been vaccinated, said Mr Swann.

"That's why the importance of vaccination has never been more critical now," he said.

"I don't want to sound like a broken record but I will be because if people come out and get vaccinated we see less positive cases, we see less hospitalisations and we see less pressure on our hospital and health service."

In recent days, healthcare workers have been asked to volunteer to help with proning - the process of turning ventilated patients on to their front to increase oxygen flow to the lungs - in ICUs.

Mr Swann said the volunteers were needed because the health service had increased the number of ICU beds across Northern Ireland.

The minister also confirmed that he had asked officials to seek the services of military medics "in the coming weeks and months" to boost staff numbers in hospitals.

Military medics from the RAF, the Royal Navy and the Army have previously been called in to help on Covid-19 wards.

On Wednesday, Northern Ireland's chief scientific adviser Prof Ian Young said the number of people dying with Covid-19 may not hit a peak "for a couple of weeks".

Stormont ministers are urging young people to get vaccinated on Saturday and Sunday as part of what they are calling the Big Jab Weekend.

Mass vaccination centres will be offering walk-in first jabs for all adult age groups on 21 and 22 August.

A total of 34 Covid-19-related deaths have been reported in the past week in Northern Ireland.

The number of positive cases is high, with almost 10,500 in the past seven days.

The majority of them - 65% - have been people aged under 40.

The infection rate in Northern Ireland is much higher than in the rest of the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

A push by the Department of Health to try to get more people vaccinated is continuing with a "Big Jab Weekend" on Saturday and Sunday.

All eyes will be on the walk-in vaccination centres to see how many people turn up.

Dr David Farren, a microbiologist and infection control doctor with the Northern Health Trust, said hospitals were as busy now as they were in January this year, and the pressure "has not stopped".

He said the profile of patients had "completely changed" from the elderly and medically vulnerable to unvaccinated young people.

"Every single day that we see this we're wondering how much further can we go, how much more can we give," he said.

"All the while we know that on the horizon we have the flu season coming up, we have the winter vomiting bug coming up, we have bronchiolitis in kids coming up.

"If all those hit, it will be a perfect storm that will just take the knees out from under us."