Coronavirus vaccine: First Pfizer-BioNTech jab in NI to be given

The first Covid-19 vaccination in Northern Ireland is due to take later on Tuesday morning.

A health worker is expected to receive the jab at about 08:00 GMT at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

More than 600 volunteer vaccinators will be given the injection this week, ahead of the biggest inoculation programme in UK history.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was approved a week ago. About 25,000 doses were delivered to NI last Friday.

The vaccine will be rolled out at seven sites across Northern Ireland including the Ulster Hospital's new Emergency Department, the Seven Towers Leisure Centre in Ballymena, Antrim Forum leisure centre and the Foyle Arena in Londonderry.

The people whose job it is to deliver the vaccine are top of the priority queue.

Residents in care homes for older adults and their staff are next in line and this will happen before Christmas.

Then, it will be the turn of everyone who is aged 80 and over and mobile, as well as front-line health and social care workers.

Those aged 70 and over and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable are next.

Each person will receive two doses, three weeks apart.

A person will only become fully protected four weeks after the initial dose.

That means vaccinators will have received just one jab when they start vaccinating.

Stocks of coronavirus vaccine were transported to Northern Ireland via the Republic of Ireland, having arrived into Dublin port from Holyhead.

They are being kept at a central storage facility operated by a private company. The location is not being disclosed.

The vaccine must be stored at about -70C and will be transported in special boxes, packed in dry ice.

Once delivered, it can be kept for up to five days in a fridge.

Northern Ireland's Health Minister Robin Swann has warned that distribution of the vaccine will be a "massive logistical challenge" particularly when it comes to rolling it out into care homes, which will require 12,000 doses.

On Monday, the Department of Health recorded nine further Covid-19 deaths taking the total death toll to 1,059.

The UK is the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for widespread use.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said the jab, which offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19 illness, is safe.

It is thought Northern Ireland will receive about 1.5 million doses in total.