‘Best gift to give yourself at Christmas is getting a booster’

The Titanic Exhibition Centre has been transformed into a vaccine facility as part of a push to roll out booster jabs before the peak of the Omicron variant hits the region.

Health Minister Robin Swann visited on the first morning and said the best gift this Christmas is getting the jab.

He described 500 walk-ins within the first few hours as a “flying start”.

Encouraging anyone who has still to come forward for their vaccine, Mr Swann indicated the more people vaccinated, the less chance of severe restrictions having to be implemented.

“I think the best gift that anybody can give themselves this Christmas is coming forward and getting their vaccine,” he said.

Lat er Mr Swann (pictured) received his own booster jab from Victoria Robinson, a specialist pharmacist at his local GP practice in Kells, Co Antrim.

Dr Patricia Donnelly, the head of Northern Ireland’s vaccination programme, paid tribute to the speed at which the TEC vaccine centre was set up.

She said she had met both young and older people arriving for their first dose of the vaccine, as well as others receiving their booster jab that morning.

“Over the last number of weeks we have seen people coming forward that we haven’t seen for a while, and they tend to be younger people, but there is also, surprisingly, some older people coming forward for their first doses,” she said.

Vaccinators working in the centre ranged from medical students to an 85-year-old former consultant.