Covid-19: 'Social deprivation a factor' in low vaccine uptake

Social deprivation could be behind the lower level of Covid-19 vaccine uptake in Northern Ireland, the chief scientific adviser has said.

Northern Ireland has the lowest vaccination rate in the UK and the highest coronavirus infection rate.

Prof Ian Young said lower uptake of jabs tended to happen in areas of "greater social deprivation".

Northern Ireland has "significantly more" deprivation than others areas in the UK, he said.

Speaking on Tuesday, Prof Young also said Northern Ireland was close to the peak of coronavirus case numbers in the current surge.

The return to schools and universities this week could see further transmission of the virus and another notable increase in the number of cases heading into the autumn.

Northern Ireland's coronavirus infection rate is 630 cases per 100,000 population, a rate that is higher than in England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland.

Figures from the Department of Health show that the infection rate is almost at the level reached during the surge in January.

Twelve more coronavirus-related deaths and 1,648 cases were reported in Northern Ireland on Tuesday.

Prof Young said: "In terms of numbers of cases we're now very close to a peak and we expect a slight decline in the next two or three weeks."

He also said there was always a lag in admissions of Covid-19 patients to hospitals, so the pressures on hospitals were not likely to peak until early September.

On the subject of vaccines, Prof Young said deprivation was "one factor which we think is contributing to reduced first dose vaccine uptake".

"We are making every effort to address them through taking mobile vaccination units to parts of Northern Ireland which are more difficult to reach and through allowing walk-in vaccination at all of our vaccine centres," he added.

More than 12,000 first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine were administered in Northern Ireland at the weekend in what was dubbed the "Big Jab Weekend".

Pregnant women have been urged to get vaccinated after a Londonderry mother died with Covid-19 two weeks after giving birth.

On Monday a funeral was held for Samantha Willis and during the service her baby daughter Evie Grace was baptised.

Dr David Farren, an infection control doctor, said hospitals were now "constantly" seeing pregnant women with Covid-19.

"Enough's enough - pregnant women need to get their vaccine," he told BBC News NI.

"This is something we are seeing constantly at the moment - we are seeing pregnant women coming with Covid-19 into hospitals.

"Now the majority do well but we do see occasionally people ending up in intensive care, having to have their babies delivered early and last week we saw a tragic death."

Dr Farren, who is also the deputy chair of the British Medical Association's Northern Ireland consultants' committee, said he could understand the hesitancy of pregnant women to get vaccinated because there had been "mixed messages".

"At the very beginning when they had the vaccine effectiveness trials they hadn't enrolled enough pregnant women for the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to decide that it was safe in pregnant women.

"Since then there have been literally hundreds of thousands of pregnant women given the vaccine worldwide and JCVI came out in August this year categorically stating that the vaccine was safe in pregnant women.

"People need to start trusting their doctors, their midwives, their nurses and not listening to people who have spent 30 minutes on the internet and decided it's not safe."

On Monday, an unvaccinated woman told BBC Radio Ulster's The Nolan Show that she was admitted to intensive care with Covid-19 while pregnant with her second child.

"It is almost as though someone is stopping you from breathing," said Sophie McMillan.

"I was fully unvaccinated, that was a choice I'd made. With hindsight I probably regret the choice now.

"The worst moment was probably the realisation that this could go badly wrong - if I don't turn a corner, if the CPAP mask doesn't work, if the steroids don't work we are talking about ventilation.

"By the time I left there was about 10 other people all ventilated - I was the only one conscious."