Thirty Covid-19 deaths recorded in last seven days - NI death rate has also tripled from 10 to 30

Thirty Covid-19 related deaths have been recorded in Northern Ireland in the last seven days.
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Thirty Covid-19 deaths recorded in last seven days - NI death rate has also tripled from 10 to 30

Thirty Covid-19 deaths recorded in last seven days - NI death rate has also tripled from 10 to 30

Thirty Covid-19 related deaths have been recorded in Northern Ireland in the last seven days.

The recent data published by the Department of Health (DoH) also shows the total number of deaths has tripled from 10, seven days ago to 30 over the last seven day period.

Also, a patient aged between 40 and 59 years-old has succumbed to Covid-19 in Northern Ireland in the last 24 hours.

In total, six additional Covid-19 deaths have been recorded by the DoH in the last 24 hours.

Three were male and three were female.

Five of the deaths occurred in a hospital setting and one occurred in a care home.

One of the deceased was aged 40-59; two were aged 60-79 and three were aged 80 or older.

The DoH also recorded an additional 1,082 infections.

There were also 224 patients with Covid-19 in hospital, of which 37 were in intensive care.

Festival fans queue up for Covid jab from 6am for free tickets

Festival goers at Feile an Phobail completing medical registration forms to get their first vaccination. The west Belfast festival launched an initiative with the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust that will see free tickets given to the Feile’s dance night to the first 500 people who turn up to the pop-up vaccine clinic at the Falls Park Bowling Pavilion.Festival goers at Feile an Phobail completing medical registration forms to get their first vaccination. The west Belfast festival launched an initiative with the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust that will see free tickets given to the Feile’s dance night to the first 500 people who turn up to the pop-up vaccine clinic at the Falls Park Bowling Pavilion.
Festival goers at Feile an Phobail completing medical registration forms to get their first vaccination. The west Belfast festival launched an initiative with the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust that will see free tickets given to the Feile’s dance night to the first 500 people who turn up to the pop-up vaccine clinic at the Falls Park Bowling Pavilion.

There was an early morning queue from 6am in west Belfast for Covid-19 vaccinations and the chance of festival tickets.

The first 500 who received the Pfizer jab at Falls Park on Tuesday walked away with free tickets to Feile an Phobail’s diversionary Feile Music Night.

The event at Falls Park on August 8 features international DJ Paul Van Dyk and Judge Jules.

The initiative comes as the youngest age groups have proven the slowest in Northern Ireland to take up the vaccine.

Peter Berne was one of the first to emerge after receiving his Pfizer jab and his free ticket.

Also among the lucky first 500 were mother and daughter Geraldine McCabe and Fionnuala McLoughlin who said they were going to get the vaccine anyway but the tickets were a bonus.

Feile an Phobail director Kevin Gamble said they had been working very closely with the Department of Health to plan events in the safest way possible this year.

“Feile an Phobail over the last 34 years has always shown leadership, particularly in west Belfast and north Belfast, and if we can help support the health trusts in driving up the vaccinations, this is us playing a very small part in that process,” he said.

“Feile’s diversionary night is one of the most popular nights in the city every year, thinking outside the box, we thought how we can we drive up the vaccination programme in west Belfast and particularly get young people vaccinated, and we came up with the idea of encouraging young people to come along, get their first dose of the vaccination and in return they would get a ticket for the diversionary night.”

Mr Gamble said they were delighted to bring back live events this year after last year’s lockdown, adding that the demand for tickets has been enormous.

“If you think back to when the pandemic started, the arts were one of the first sectors to close down and one of the last to reopen, so we’ve been working very hard to show that we can get back to live events and get back to doing what we do best which is entertaining the public,” he said.

Joanna Hogg, the nurse in charge of the vaccination programme at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, said they were delighted at the turnout.

“It was really lovely to see and there was a nice buzz about the place, very positive and the Feile team have been amazing, helping us set up,” she said.

“The mobile vaccination team’s main incentive is to set up in areas that are more accessible to the younger age group and maybe at different times to when the vaccination centres would be open.

“It’s been a brilliant collaboration.”

Ms Barr, nee Sloan, was the first person in Northern Ireland to receive the vaccine on December 8.

“I knew then what a privilege it was and that’s eight months ago now since I received my vaccine,” she said.

“Since then the Belfast Trust has delivered over 200,000 vaccines just through our centre and our mobile clinics.

“It has been amazing, 200,000 is just under 10% of the population vaccinated in Northern Ireland.

“It has been excellent.”

‘The public have always been behaving responsibly’ says leading behavioural scientist

A leading behavioural scientist has praised the British public for consistently being ahead of the Government in terms of their awareness of the dangers of Covid-19.

Stephen Reicher, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of St Andrews and Member of Independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (Spi-B), told Sky News:

“The public have always been behaving responsibly.

“The remarkable thing when you look at the data is that people have always been ahead of the Government in being aware of the dangers (of Covid).

“The problem, to some extent, is that the Government is not matching the public with its own responsibilities.

“It does seem as if the changes in the Covid rules come as quickly as medals come to the UK team (at the Tokyo Olympics).

“We’ve got to use the summer, we squandered it last year.

“We should be installing ventilation in public spaces. In New York, they’re going to have two air purifiers in every classroom.

“If the Government showed the same responsibility the public is showing, I think we’d be in a far better place in the autumn.”

UK surpasses 155,000 Covid-19 related deaths

A total of 155,133 deaths have now occurred in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, the ONS said.

The highest number of deaths to occur on a single day was 1,484 on January 19.

During the first wave of the virus, the daily toll peaked at 1,461 deaths on April 8 2020.

Top Northern Ireland doctor ‘frightened’ after threats of ‘summary street justice’ after encouraging people to take Covid-19 vaccine

One of Northern Ireland's top doctors has said he felt "frightened" after a member of the public threatened him with "summary street justice" after he attempted to encourage more people to take up the offer of a Covid-19 vaccination jab.

The Medical Director of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Dr. Chris Hagan, described the details of what happened to BBC Radio Ulster broadcaster, Stephen Nolan, on Tuesday morning.

“I had people threatening me with summary street justice, I had people calling me a psychopath.

“I was appalled, really sad and felt frightened,” said Dr. Hagan.

Asked if he had contacted the PSNI about the threat, Dr. Hagan replied: “not yet”.

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