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A first batch of nearly 25,000 doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has arrived in Northern Ireland, with vaccinations to begin early next week.
The development was confirmed in a statement from Stormont Health Minister Robin Swann.
“We have been anticipating this news for many months and it is very welcome to receive this first batch of the vaccine today,” he said.
“It was clear to me that we still have a long way to go but we can be optimistic.”
The minister confirmed that vaccinators who will administer the vaccine will receive the first doses early next week, “quickly followed by priority groups.”
Swann said there were “significant logistical challenges” associated with delivering the vaccine to nursing homes.
He said his department was “exploring all avenues to achieve this priority goal.”
Minister Swann added: “Vaccination will be a massive logistical challenge in the long term. Our pace of progress will depend on the supplies available to be distributed as part of a program across the UK.”
He said: “Everyone will need two doses, with a number of weeks between them. The implementation will take a large part of 2021, so we will all have to be patient while we wait our turn.”
It comes as six more deaths from coronavirus were confirmed in Northern Ireland today, bringing the death toll to 1,032.
449 new cases of the disease were also identified from tests of 3,063 people.
The Health Department said 402 Covid patients are currently in hospital, 35 in the ICU and 24 of them on ventilators.
The vaccination centers will be open 7 days a week
The vaccine was transported overnight from England and taken to a central storage facility, the location of which has not been disclosed.
Health workers across the region will be able to receive the vaccine for the rest of December at seven centers across Northern Ireland.
Two of the facilities are located on the hospital grounds, at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald and the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, with the remainder in leisure centers.
The centers will operate 12 hours a day and seven days a week in an effort to vaccinate 100,000 members of the nursing and nursing staff. Nursing home residents and people over the age of 80 are also in the highest priority vaccination group.
The size of the batches and the extremely low temperature at which it must be stored pose logistical challenges with the use of the vaccine outside of major centers.
Most nursing home residents can eventually receive another brand of vaccine, and health chiefs hope that regulatory approval for the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine will be only a matter of days.
That product doesn’t come with the same batch size and storage limitations.
Additional reporting PA
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