Covid-19: Thousands to get vaccine as SSE Arena opens

Several thousand people are set to receive a dose of a Covid-19 vaccine at the SSE Arena in Belfast on Monday when it opens as a mass vaccination centre.

It is expected that 40,000 people could be vaccinated each week at the arena, where the AstraZeneca jab will be used.

Health officials plan to operate the vaccination service at the venue up to 14 hours a day, seven days a week.

Free car parking and shuttle bus services are being offered to people travelling to the arena for their jab.

Covid-19 vaccinations at community pharmacies in Northern Ireland are also due to begin on Monday.

In Northern Ireland vaccines are available to people aged 50 or over.

Those who are eligible can book an appointment online, by phone on 0300 200 7813 or they may be contacted by their GP.

The SSE Arena is the home of Belfast Giants ice hockey team and is one of the biggest concert venues in the city.

It had been expected that it would be ready for use as a vaccination centre in mid-April.

But BBC News NI understands that Patricia Donnelly, the head of the vaccination programme in Northern Ireland, asked for its opening to be brought forward in order to quickly distribute additional supply of AstraZeneca doses.

Mrs Donnelly has credited two nurses - Tanya Daly and Roisin Coulter, who had both previously directed the vaccination rollout at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald - for their work to prepare the arena for its new purpose.

Ms Coulter has said that up to 60 booths in which staff can give people a vaccine could be set up inside the SSE Arena.

Exceptional times require exceptional responses and transforming one of Belfast's best-known entertainment venues into a mass vaccination centre in six weeks is one of them.

The achievement is down to the hard work and organisational skills of ordinary people.

Some people have likened fighting coronavirus to a war - once again we have seen a massive rallying of the troops in order to set up the vaccination of potentially thousands of people every day.

As the statistics demonstrate, vaccines are slowly breaking the chain from positive case to hospitalisation to severe disease and death.

And the opening of the SSE Arena offers a massive opportunity to step up the vaccination programme even further.

It also marks a significant step for the health service, allowing hospitals and GPs' surgeries to get back to what they should be doing.

At the same time, the Stormont executive has a challenge of Herculean proportions to keep the public on board - without a doubt there is significant feeling of emotional fatigue as a result of the pandemic.

Some good news on the horizon about the easing of some restrictions might just be the ticket.

Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon has given details of a traffic management plan for the SSE Arena vaccination centre.

It includes the suspension of parking costs at Eastside and Northside car parks in Belfast and a shuttle bus service to and from the arena.

"I would ask those travelling to the SSE for vaccines to use the free bus service to get to the centre," said Ms Mallon.

The public transport options for travel to the SSE Arena include:

The car park at the SSE Arena has been used as a drive-through Covid-19 test centre since April last year.

The other vaccination centres across Northern Ireland will continue to operate.

As of Sunday, 726,589 people in Northern Ireland had received a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Some 123,452 people had received their second dose, meaning a total of 850,041 jabs has been administered in Northern Ireland.

On Sunday, First Minister Arlene Foster said it could be a "runner" for the UK government to offer Covid-19 vaccines to the Republic of Ireland.

The government said it would consider distributing a surplus of vaccine "as they become available".

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said: "We'd be very interested in talking to the British government about that.

"There may well be excess vaccines at some point in the future but I don't think we're realistically looking at that for many, many weeks yet."