Coronavirus: Booster programme speeded up to deal with Omicron

Northern Ireland's vaccine booster programme is to be accelerated with walk-in jabs being made available for the over-30s.

Emergency measures are needed due to the potential threat posed by the Omicron variant, Health Minister Robin Swann has said.

Ten cases of the Covid-19 variant have been detected in Northern Ireland.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned in a televised address on Sunday that a "tidal wave of Omicron coming".

In Northern Ireland, boosters are now being made available at walk-in centres for those aged 30 and above, whose last dose was administered at least three months ago.

Mr Swann said the speeding up of the vaccine programme was to administer as many booster doses as possible before the end of December.

Trust hubs will be extending their opening hours and days of operation with immediate effect and hundreds of additional vaccinators are in the process of being recruited.

The deferral of some planned routine health service activity is also "under consideration to free up further capacity".

"GPs, community pharmacies and trust hubs will all have a central and vital role in making this happen," he added.

"It is also really important that people who are not yet vaccinated come forward for their first dose without delay."

Northern Ireland First Minister Paul Givan emphasised the importance of the booster vaccination.

"This new variant is two and a half times more transmissible, there is not the same protection from the first and second doses, but the booster does provide additional protection and that's why we need to get it out there," he said.

Northern Ireland Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots, who is a former health minister, said Omicron would be the dominant variant in a very short space of time but the question remained how severe it would be.

"If it is severe, then there will be massive change required," he said.

There are now 10 confirmed cases of Omicron in Northern Ireland.

None of those cases are in hospital, and of course, the true number is likely to be much higher.

I understand those cases are either travel related or household contacts - so there is either little or no community transmission that public health officials can identify.

That is good but it is a situation that will change.

It's all about trying to contain cases at this stage in order to protect the public and the health service, but with just weeks to go before Christmas - where travel and socialising really is at its peak - that's going to be very difficult to do.

We are in a different position than this time last year - while the vaccine had just come on the market, a lot of us hadn't got it.

The language used by the prime minister and the UK's chief medical officers on Sunday night was shocking - it was designed to jolt us and trigger a rapid acceleration of the booster programme.

I would expect we're going to hear further updates on Northern Ireland's booster programme later on Monday.

Chief scientific adviser Prof Ian Young said the Omicron variant represented a significant threat and Northern Ireland now had an opportunity to get in the "strongest possible position" ahead of the wave.

He said a "huge amount of work" had taken place over the weekend to do with the booster jabs for the over-30s.

"The minister has indicated his intention of ensuring we can match the commitments which have been made in England and Scotland in terms of vaccine delivery," he said.

"It will be our job as a health and social care system to put the infrastructure in place to achieve that, but we need the population to come forward and to take up the opportunities for vaccination which are on offer."

Northern Ireland has had a slower uptake for booster doses in comparison with Great Britain.

The health officials in charge of vaccines have said that is because of the initial emphasis that was put on getting boosters into Northern Ireland's care homes - a slow, time-consuming process and a bid to protect the most vulnerable citizens.