Covid-19: More than 8,000 first jabs given in weekend vaccine push

Staff celebrate outside the SSE Arena in Belfast as the vaccine clinic inside closes

Early estimates suggest that more than 8,000 first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine were administered in Northern Ireland in the past two days.

The total is still being counted and the exact number is expected to be announced on Monday.

The chief medical officer Sir Michael McBride told BBC News NI: "I suspect it's somewhere in the region of between 8,000 and 10,000 people.

"It's a huge achievement and I want to thank every single person."

It comes as 11 more deaths with Covid-19 were reported in the past 24 hours.

Another 1,485 cases were also reported.

On Sunday evening, the final Covid-19 vaccine was administered at Belfast's largest vaccination centre, at the SSE Arena.

Teenager Danielle McElroy, 17, from Bangor was given the last jab.

Danielle McElroy was the last person to receive a vaccine at the centre inside the SSE arena in Belfast

She said afterwards: "I just want to get back to normality and I think this is a great step to do that, and it keeps everybody safe as well."

More than 360,000 doses of the vaccine were administered in the arena in the past five months.

The Health Minister Robin Swann thanked staff at the arena and told them "the work you have done has saved lives".

As the vaccination centre shut down, a piper led a procession of medical staff out of the arena.

In the coming weeks, it will be converted back to an entertainment complex for pop concerts and ice-hockey matches.

A vaccination clinic for second doses will be set up in a car park at the arena.

Today is the last day that people aged 18 and over could get their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine at one of the regional centres.

Most recent data shows Northern Ireland has the UK's lowest vaccination rate - about 14% of Northern Ireland's adult population are still without a first dose.

Ahead of the weekend it was estimated that more than 150,000 adults have so far not been vaccinated.

Vaccination centres winding down

Other mass vaccination centres are set to wind down operations soon, but walk-in pop-up clinics and some pharmacies will continue to offer vaccination services to over-16s.

Patricia Donnelly, head of Northern Ireland's vaccination programme, said there would still be opportunities for people to be vaccinated when mass vaccination centres wind down.

However, she said these opportunities would become "inevitably more limited" as the focus of the programme switched to booster jabs.

Staff at the Newry vaccination centre have assured people they will be seen as quickly as possible

There was also a big turnout in Newry, County Down, where some people waited more than 90 minutes to get vaccinated.

At about 12:30 BST, the queue at the walk-in clinic at Quays Shopping Centre stretched beyond the car park and towards the city centre.

More than 200 people were in the queue to get vaccinated and staff encouraged them to wait.

The number of Covid-related deaths has been rising in recent weeks as has the number of positive cases, particularly amongst people under 40.

Health officials were encouraged by the scenes outside vaccination centres on Saturday when people queued in the rain to ensure they were jabbed.

The Western Trust tweeted that it had administered more than 2,000 first doses at its vaccination centres this weekend.

The mid-morning queue at Ballymena's vaccination centre on Saturday