Covid-19: Preparation for NI vaccination programme in December

Plans are under way to allow Northern Ireland's vaccination programme to begin next month, according to the Health Minister Robin Swann.

Without regulatory approval any plans at this stage are provisional.

According to the Department of Health, the vaccination programme will be on a phased basis, and will run well into 2021.

Plans include a public information campaign to encourage take up among the public.

The JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) group will decide on who should be first in line to receive it, but it has been widely reported that care home residents and health and social care workers will be the first priority groups.

The Health Minister said: "The progress towards a vaccine is highly impressive and extremely welcome. However, I have to reiterate that regulatory hurdles have still to be cleared so we should take nothing for granted.

"It is essential that people do not relax their guard against Covid-19 now, just because hopes are rising on the vaccine front.

"We have to keep doing all the right things to protect ourselves against the virus and that will remain the case for the foreseeable future."

First Minister Arlene Foster told a Stormont press briefing Northern Ireland would be in receipt of about four million doses of the vaccine.

She said rollout would start with care home residents and staff, health and social care workers and those aged over 80.

At-risk groups will come next, with the under 50s in the last stage.

The first minister said it was hoped "between 5,000 and 8,000 health care staff can be vaccinated per day".

She said it was intended that 100,000 health care workers will be vaccinated over a three-week period.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said the most vulnerable would be the first to receive it.

"In early 2021, the plan is that those who are over 65 and vulnerable and people under 65 will received the vaccine," she said.

"By Spring 2021, those who are over 50, who have not yet got it, should get it and by summer 2021 we hope to see that mass programme rolled out to the wider public," she added.

This guidance from the Department of Health makes the rollout of the vaccine across Northern Ireland more of a reality.

However, it will be a major logistical exercise, requiring much organisation which will extend well into next year.

Mr Swann said that while he was "cautious by nature" he was "optimistic that vaccination will increasingly do the heavy lifting for us in 2021 in the battle against coronavirus".

"I am also very heartened by the scale of the preparatory work already undertaken for a vaccination programme in Northern Ireland," he added.

The NI Executive has been given an update on the department's plans which include fixed mass vaccination centres and the deployment of mobile units to care homes.

GPs and community pharmacists will also have a key role to play as the programme progresses next year.

The vaccines will be deployed as they become available. It is anticipated that each person receiving the vaccine will require two doses.