The first person to receive the coronavirus vaccine in Ireland will receive an injection on Tuesday, December 8

The first recipient of the coronavirus vaccine in Northern Ireland will receive the vaccine on Tuesday morning.

The Pfizer / BioNTech dose will be administered at 8 am at a mass vaccination center at the Royal Victoria Hospital, according to the PA news agency.

The beneficiary will be one of more than 800 vaccinators who will participate in the post-implementation program.

Stocks of the coronavirus vaccine arrived in Northern Ireland on Friday.

They were transported through the Republic having reached Dublin Port from Holyhead overnight.

There are 25,000 doses in the initial batch of the vaccine.

The stocks have been moved to a central storage facility operated by a private company. The location will not be revealed.

Health Minister Robin Swann said: “We have been waiting for this news for many months and it is very welcome to receive the first batch of the vaccine today.”

“I was clear that we still have a long way to go but we can be optimistic.

“Following the authorization of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine by the MHRA (Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency) on Wednesday, we were able to move quickly to coordinate the arrival of the first shipment and now we will be able to start the planned list from the beginning of the next one. week “.

The Health Department announced the death of six other people with Covid-19 on Friday, along with 449 new confirmed cases of the virus.

Health workers in the region will be able to receive the vaccine during the rest of December in seven centers throughout the region.

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.

Health officials continue to examine ways to administer the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in nursing homes in Northern Ireland.

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.

Swann added: “Vaccination will be a massive logistical challenge in the long run.

“Our pace of progress will depend on the supplies available to be distributed as part of a program across the UK.

“Everyone will need two doses, with a number of weeks in between. The implementation will take a large part of 2021, so we will all have to be patient while we wait our turn.”