St Patrick’s Day: Police hand out 135 notices for breach of Covid regulations across NI

Mar 18, 2021

Dear reader

The head of the vaccine programme in Northern Ireland has offered reassurance after concern mounted over significant delays to the UK’s Covid-19 rollout.

It emerged overnight that NHS England was fearful of a major slowdown in the programme during April due to a difficulty in sourcing AstraZeneca jabs.

Patricia Donnelly, the head of the vaccine programme here, told the Assembly’s Health committee on Thursday that plans had been flexed to make more use of Pfizer jabs pending the arrival of further AstraZeneca stock.

After days of controversy around the AstraZeneca jab with a number of European countries pausing its use amid fears over blood clots, the World Health Organisation has offered reassurance.

Dr Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said it was “routine to signal adverse events” but people should “have confidence” in the protection given by vaccines.

The Department of Health also revealed details of the latest Covid-19 statistics here. One more person who tested positive for the virus has died over the last 24 hours while another 169 people have recorded positive tests.

Alistair Bushe
Editor

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