CMO: '2022 before life returns to normal'

It will be early next year before life in Northern Ireland returns to relative normality, according to the Chief Medical Officer.

The new variants would spread like a "finely-tuned sports car'' if restrictions were eased too quickly, Dr Michael McBride added.

He said: "I think we will have restrictions in place next autumn and winter.''

He said they may be less onerous than at present and hoped the coming summer could be somewhat like last summer when curbs were eased.

"I am cautiously optimistic but we need to be realistic that the current restrictions we have in place are likely to be in place for a significant period of time.''

He said the health service was in a "fragile'' place, with 579 people still in hospital with Covid-19, and warned infectious new variants clouded the picture.

The arrival of the South African variant is expected in the future and is already in the Republic.

Dr McBride added: "The virus does not read the rule book, it does not follow our timelines.''

If restrictions were eased now we could see exponential growth and another wave of hospital admissions, Dr McBride warned.

He said: "We are driving a different car now.

"It may have been a Ford Fiesta with the old variant but this is a highly-tuned sports car with the new variant.''

Patricia Donnelly, who leads the vaccination effort for the Department of Health, said the uptake of booking slots among those aged 65 to 69 had not been as fast as hoped.

Nearly all care home residents have received a second jab, bar those which were dealing with an outbreak.

Plans are being progressed to see the clinically extremely vulnerable at mass vaccination centres.