NI vaccine rollout to be ramped up

Robin Swann says the Covid-19 vaccination programme is set to be accelerated in the coming weeks.

He was speaking ahead of one of the largest deliveries of the AstraZeneca jab to Northern Ireland expected this week.

During a visit to the vaccination centre at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald, he praised the success of the rollout.

And he revealed some of the regional vaccination centres are being moved from Pfizer to AstraZeneca due to the imminent delivery.

"Because of the size of this delivery, it will actually be two separate batches, one has a use-by date of the end of this month but with the numbers we are putting through now on a daily basis, we'll be able to manage that, it will be a challenge but we have logistics now in place to be able to cope with those large numbers,'' he said,

Mr Swann said the initial programme is "being stepped forward by a matter of weeks at each step."

"When we see the size of this delivery and actually have it here in Northern Ireland, we could be looking at the possibility of moving to a next stage along the programme, another age cohort being called forward some time soon,'' he said.

He described loss rate of vaccinations at the Ulster Hospital as 0.24% and said this was "mostly down to spoilage due to cracked vials rather than a waste due to management processes''.