Covid-19: NI 'to have vaccinated 600,000 people by Wednesday'

More than 600,000 people in Northern Ireland will have received their first Covid-19 vaccine by Wednesday, Health Minister Robin Swann has said.

He was speaking on a visit to the vaccination centre at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald with the first and deputy first ministers.

Mr Swann described the rollout so far as a "fantastic achievement".

He said if progress continued at pace it could be possible very soon to widen eligibility to the next age cohort.

On Tuesday, two more Covid-18 deaths were announced by the department, along with 240 more cases of the virus.

It takes the death toll recorded by the department to 2,079.

There are 222 Covid patients in hospitals in Northern Ireland, with 32 of those people in intensive care units.

First Minister Arlene Foster said she was encouraged that Belfast's SSE Arena would soon open as a mass vaccination centre and she thanked all of the staff who were involved in the programme.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill described the vaccine scheme as the "light at the end of the tunnel we've been reaching out for".

"We have to not throw this away and while we're paving the way - people can't be complacent," she added.

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On Monday it was announced that Northern Ireland was to receive "significant" amounts of vaccine this week that will need to be used by the end of March.

Two batches of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine are expected.

On Tuesday the Department of Health said a total of 641,121 doses of Covid-19 vaccines had been administered in Northern Ireland.

Of those, 596,527 were first doses and 44,594 were second doses.

Speaking ahead of a meeting of the Stormont executive on Thursday, Mr Swann said he would not pre-judge the outcome of a discussion about when all pupils in Northern Ireland might return to school.

Mrs Foster said the ministers would consider health advice in conjunction with other harms before reaching a decision on a proposal paper from Education Minister Peter Weir.

Some primary school pupils in primaries one to three returned on Monday for the first time since Christmas.

The plan is that they will then revert to remote learning on 22 March.

Mr Weir has proposed to the executive that that should be scrapped.

He wants all pupils in Northern Ireland back in classrooms by 12 April after the Easter holidays, BBC News NI understands.

His proposal is for all primary school children who have not yet returned to school (primaries four to seven) should start on 22 March.

That is the same day students in years 12 to14 are due to resume face-to-face learning.