Mass vaccination sites and roving teams: Arlene Foster spells out the detail behind Northern Ireland’s new coronavirus vaccine plan

Health Minister Robin Swann said the rollout could start next month with preparations now “well under way” — so long as regulators grant the necessary approvals for the new jabs.

At a press conference on Thursday evening, Arlene Foster provided a glimpse at what we should expect to see once the immunisation programme gets under way.

With just hours remaining before the closure of so-called non-essential retail outlets and other elements of public life for a two week circuit-breaker, ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive were brought up to speed on the “scale of the preparatory work already undertaken” in Northern Ireland yesterday by the head of the Covid-19 Vaccine Programme, Patricia Donnelly.

Mrs Foster said: “Northern Ireland will be in receipt of around four million doses of the vaccine and we will be advised by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

“Roll-out will be over a number of phases — starting with care home residents and staff, health and social care workers, and those aged over 80, and then the at-risk groups and phases decreasing by age with the under 50s in the last phase.”

Explaining how the vaccines will be delivered, she said: “Mobile teams will target care home residents and staff, and roving teams can support district nursing to reach housebound patients.

“It is proposed that enhanced Trust teams will operate at a number of fixed mass vaccination sites in order to vaccinate all health workers, and the plan is that between 5,000 and 8,000 can be vaccinated per day to ensure that all 100,000 health care staff can be covered over a three-week period.”

She continued: “We recognise the logistical challenge of populating testing and vaccination programmes on a Northern Ireland wide basis, so consequently the Deputy First Minister [Michelle O’Neill] and I have advised colleagues of additional measures we are taking to further integrate and enhance co-ordination and have collectivity across the Executive.

“Given the particular responsibilities for the health response and for civil contingencies, we’re bringing together in a more formalised structure — a taskforce, if you will — the Public Health Agency, the Department of Health, our own Executive Office, and other relevant agencies to ensure that everyone is working as seamlessly as possible.”

Mrs Foster added: “And we want, of course, to add in additional logistics expertise as well.”

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