Vaccine Roll-Out Continues At Pace In Northern Ireland

Right now we will take all the good news we can get, so the fact that the vaccine roll-out is rolling along very nicely indeed here in Northern Ireland is something to be celebrated. It is believed that over 10% of the population has now been vaccinated, these being the most vulnerable in our communities.

Most Over 80`s Have Now Been Vaccinated

So far most of the people over 80 have been vaccinated along with people in car homes and health care workers. The next people to be vaccinated will be those aged between 65 and 80, which is quite a big percentage of the population. If this group can be vaccinated by the end of this month, February, then the country could look in a much healthier position as regards the threat of the coronavirus. Whether this target will be reached depends very much on the supply chain of the vaccine or vaccines.

Protect First And Then Slow The Spread Of The Virus

Speaking about the vaccine roll-out, Dr Alan Stout, the chair of the Northern Ireland general practitioners committee, is quoted in Belfast Live as saying:

“The first part is trying to protect those that we know need protected the most and that is what we are focusing on and doing at the moment.

“The second part is then trying to slow the spread of the infection and that’s by going onto a wider population type of vaccination programme. That becomes a bigger programme in itself and that can actually be mimicked by some of the measures that are in place at the moment,” he added.

“The third part which I am not convinced we are ever going to get to with Covid, is eradicating the disease altogether.

“It will be much more challenging to get to that point.”

Dr Stout said GPs and hospitals would like to be vaccinating more people and quicker, “but we just can’t get the vaccine quick enough to do that”.

He continued: “But our success, I think, is down to the fact that it has been extremely well organised.

“We have two very distinct channels of how we are vaccinating people. The Trusts initially tackled the healthcare workers and the care homes, they have now moved onto the 65 to 69 year old age group, whereas practices using the other vaccine, the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine are concentrating very much initially on the over 80s and are now moving to the over 75s, the over 70s and the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable group as well.”

Astonished At The Response

“I am actually astonished at the response (to have the vaccine). People will come in at a minutes notice to get it, everybody wants it, and everybody wants it as soon as possible – that in itself is putting pressure on because as I say, we are limited by the rate of the vaccine we get in.

“Practices themselves are so committed and so determined to give it, and to give it to as many as possible as quickly as possible.”

“If we can get to a point where we have very low circulating virus and those that we know are most at risk [are] vaccinated, that will actually allow us to open in a very confident manner and a very sustained manner which we haven’t been at before.”

The last paragraph is absolutely key looking at this with our business heads on. When we do come out of lockdown it does this time have to be on as permanent a level as it is possible to get, as businesses simply cannot sustain dealing with the uncertainty of the last year, when there has been opening up, opening up with restrictions and then closing down at a moments notice. Businesses need certainty and a plan so they can open their businesses with confidence in the near future.