Coronavirus vaccine roll-out: NI leads the UK for second doses despite falling behind on first doses

The latest figures show that, per capita, Northern Ireland’s vaccine roll-out has fallen behind England and Wales having initially been ahead in terms of first doses.

Around 22% of the adult population in Northern Ireland has now had at least one dose of the vaccine – compared with more than 24% for both England and Wales.

The head of Northern Ireland’s vaccination programme, Patricia Donnelly, was asked by the News Letter why the roll-out here appears to have fallen behind.

“Maybe the thing to understand about the programme here is that there was a decision taken here very early on that the care homes, which were the number one priority group, would be the number one priority,” she said.

“So we went out [to care homes] with mobile teams and we vaccinated when others couldn’t find a way to use Pfizer.

“We also made a decision very early on that we would maintain a three-week dose interval for that group.

“Therefore we have done far more second doses than anyone else has and we’ve covered off all that population.”

She added: “We’ve kept a very keen and pacy programme. In terms of absolute numbers I don’t think we are any different.

“We are always looking for new ways and quicker ways to deploy. We’re not sure there’s any way to do it any quicker.”