Vaccination of NI’s over-75s expected to start next week

To date, the roll-out here has been focused on immunising frontline health staff, care home residents and staff, and those aged over-80 who don’t live in care homes.

The British Medical Association has said the first phase of the plan has gone “very well”, with the chair of the organisation’s Northern Ireland GP committee Dr Alan Stout now expecting an announcement “this week” about the move to phase two.

To date, the United Kingdom has administered more coronavirus vaccines per head of population than any other large country – with only Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain having vaccinated a higher proportion.

And within the UK, Northern Ireland’s programme has proceeded more quickly than in England, Scotland and Wales.

Yesterday, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said more than half of those included in phase one have been vaccinated, as he announced plans to begin inviting those aged 75-and-over to receive their jabs.

But Northern Ireland has almost completed its first phase, according to Dr Stout.

“I think we will almost certainly get an announcement this week that we will move to the over-75s because we have had a delivery of significantly more vaccine, which will allow us to complete the over-80s and move on to the over-75s,” he told the News Letter.

The population covered by phase one in Northern Ireland is estimated at around 195,000 people and, by yesterday, 146,000 doses of vaccine had been administered.

Dr Stout added: “It’s going very well, partly because in the early stages we focused very much on the Pfizer vaccine, which was the first one to be approved.

“It all went to the trusts, and the trusts then were asked to vaccinate the healthcare workers and also the care home residents and staff. That was the first priority group and they focused almost solely on that and did it very, very well, so our numbers were exceptionally high. It is, if not entirely completed, very close to completion.

“So by doing that when we got the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in, it went almost solely to (GP) practices.

“So practices then tackled – and are currently tackling – the over-80s. We will get an announcement this week that we are to move to the over-75s as well.

“I think we will almost certainly get an announcement this week that we will move to that because we have had a delivery of significantly more vaccine, which will allow us to complete the over-80s and move on to the over-75s.

“By the end of January we will definitely have everyone aged over 80 vaccinated.”

Asked whether Northern Ireland could move to begin vaccinating the over-75s as early as next week, Dr Stout said: “Yes, we will follow suit. What we have shown to date is that, as soon as we know we have the vaccine and we are in a position to do it, we will do it really, really quickly and really, really well.

“What we had in the early days is that, as soon as the MHRA approved the AstraZeneca vaccine, we had 50,000 doses in stock so we were able to move very, very quickly. But there were about 72,000 patients over 80 who weren’t in care homes who needed it, so there was that shortfall from the outset which has now been solved with subsequent deliveries and so on. There is absolutely no shortage of vaccine and now we are getting more and more, so those groups will get picked up very quickly and everyone will get it.

“Through general practice, or through any of the schemes, we will give the vaccine as soon as we get it. The issue isn’t the ability or the desire to give the vaccine, it’s how quickly we actually physically get the vaccine.”

His colleague in the BMA, Dr Tom Black, said: “It’s going so well in Northern Ireland because we’ve had a lot of volunteers, a lot of retired GPs who are so used to dealing with the flu vaccination programme that they can just get on with it. The same is true in general practice. We’re champing at the bit to be quite frank.”