NI Covid-19 regulations now ‘unde r daily review’ as Michelle O’Nei ll cannot rule out imposing new r estrictions before end of December

Good afternoon
Today we've had the very welcome news that the roll-out for the coronavirus vaccine is underway in Northern Ireland. Joanna Sloan, 28, a sister in charge of Covid vaccination for the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust received the vaccine just after 8am this morning.

It also emerged that the first ever recipient of the vaccine in the world - outside trial conditions - was a 90-year-old woman from Enniskillen. Margaret Keenan received the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid marking the start of the UK’s mass vaccination programme. Matron May Parsons administered Ms Keenan’s vaccine at at 06.30 GMT at University Hospital, Coventry.
Michelle O’Neill has said she cannot rule out imposing new restrictions before end of December. She revealed Covid-19 regulations in Northern Ireland are now under daily review. “We have to keep everything under review, everything must be on the table,” the deputy First Minister.
From a more positive outlook Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said that he expects Covid restrictions can start to be lifted from spring next year and has “great hopes” for a more normal summer. He said, “We’ve said that we think that, from the spring, things can start getting back to normal, and, because we’ve been able to get this vaccination programme going sooner than anywhere else in the world, we’ll be able to bring that date forward a bit.

Have a good evening
Michael Cousins
Deputy digital editor
Digital subscriptions to the News Letter are available from only £1 a month for the first 3 months. That will give you unlimited access to our content along with our subscriber only interactive puzzles. 70% fewer ads and with the digital+ option you can also access the newspaper app edition. You can see all the options here.