COVID-19: NI booster programme accelerated
Boosters available for 18-29 year-olds from today
The extension of the Covid vaccine booster programme to 18 to 29-year-olds in Northern Ireland has been brought forward to Sunday with immediate effect.
This means the vaccine booster programme is now open to everyone aged 18 and over who received their second dose at least three months ago.
Chief medical officer Sir Michael McBride said: "The Omicron variant is spreading rapidly and is likely to be dominant or close to dominant in Northern Ireland by Christmas.
"Given its infectiousness, the risk of any of us catching the virus is most definitely heightened.
"That's why getting the protection of a booster dose is so important and urgent."
Michelle O'Neill said the Stormont Executive would look at "all options" in terms of introducing new Covid restrictions for Northern Ireland.
She said: "Everything is on the table. We have to look at all options.
"I think we will have a clearer picture tomorrow in terms of impact on hospital numbers, which is a crucially important factor in terms of any intervention that we may decide to make.
"Health have been very clear that the booster programme in itself won't be enough to protect us, we will need a significant intervention alongside that.
"The nature of that intervention, the timing of that intervention and the length of that intervention is yet to be decided upon.
"Wednesday is our scheduled Executive meeting but if we need to come to a decision point before that then that is certainly what we will do."
Michelle O'Neill said modelling presented to ministers suggested that in a worst-case scenario Northern Ireland could be facing 30,000 Omicron cases a day.
She said: "These figures are really alarming. It is going to be the sheer volume of cases that is going to be a dominant feature throughout January.
"We know that by Christmas Day we could potentially have 11,000 cases a day.
"We know that in the worst-case scenario, in terms of some of the modelling that has been done, we could be facing up to 30,000 cases a day.
"You can take from that the sheer volume of cases is going to be overwhelming, every Government department, every minister has their sleeves rolled up in terms of trying to plan for what is coming at us.
"That is why it is crucially important in the timing of our intervention. We do have a bit of a window to plan.
"By the end of the year this is going to be the dominant strain, this will be overwhelming and we are going to have to intervene."
Michelle O'Neill said the Stormont Executive cannot be "held to ransom" by what is happening in England in order to get financial support to introduce Covid restrictions.
She said: "Our strategy has been to bring down community transmission.
"We have been very much focused on raising finances, we need money in order to support interventions because health are telling us that the booster programme in itself isn't enough, we are going to need an intervention of some sort.
"What that looks like is yet to be decided upon but the Executive will discuss that this week.
"We need to have the backs of the workers, we need to support businesses if we have to intervene. You cannot do this without money.
"I myself have constantly engaged with the Treasury making the case for finances.
"The Executive cannot be held to ransom by what is happening in England. We shouldn't have to wait for what is happening in England in order for us to act."
Stormont's deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill has warned that Omicron will hit Northern Ireland "like a ton of bricks".
Ms O'Neill told the BBC Sunday Politics Programme: "Once again we find ourselves dealing with what potentially is going to be the worst time through the whole of the pandemic. We are in live play and we are analysing the data and the information as it comes through.
"We are in the fortunate position that we are a little bit behind what is happening in England and Scotland and are able to analyse what is happening there and make decisions based on the impact we are going to see here."
She added: "We are continuing to work around the clock with public health officials to understand the impact because there are things that we currently know, but there are also things that we do not know. In terms of what we know, we know that this is going to hit us like a ton of bricks.
"We know that by the end of the year this will be the dominant strain of Covid, we know that we will peak in the middle of January, we know it is going to spread rapidly.
"What we don't yet know is the impact in terms of our hospital situation, and we expect to understand that a bit more tomorrow and that is when we will engage again.
"Then we decide when to intervene and what is the appropriate intervention."