The target had been to reach more than 800,000 injections – both first and second doses – by May. The programme extended to people aged 25-29 this week, with about 20,000 slots available weekly, while the head of the vaccination programme, Patricia Donnelly, said all age groups would get offers “very shortly”. Throughout, the vaccination programme has been flexible and nimble, she said: “There are three of us that sit down several times and say, ‘Okay, where are the issues?’“I always talk about pulling a thread. “A lot of the vaccination centres and GPs were going to be tied up with second doses, so therefore we had to find a different way to deliver the first doses,” Donnelly said. On Friday almost 7,500 people received a vaccine in the North, including about 1,500 first doses and 6,000 second doses.

Source: The Irish Times May 21, 2021 17:48 UTC