Coronavirus vaccine roll-out: NI leads the UK for second doses despite falling behind on first doses
![Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th January 2021
Picture by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye
Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines at Dr McKenna's Practice on the Falls Road in west Belfast](https://www.newsletter.co.uk/webimg/TUFZMTI4NDUyNjcx.jpg?crop=3:2,smart&trim=&width=640&quality=65&enable=upscale)
![Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th January 2021
Picture by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye
Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines at Dr McKenna's Practice on the Falls Road in west Belfast](/img/placeholder.png)
The latest figures show that, per capita, Northern Ireland’s vaccine roll-out has fallen behind England and Wales having initially been ahead in terms of first doses.
Around 22% of the adult population in Northern Ireland has now had at least one dose of the vaccine – compared with more than 24% for both England and Wales.
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Hide AdThe head of Northern Ireland’s vaccination programme, Patricia Donnelly, was asked by the News Letter why the roll-out here appears to have fallen behind.
“Maybe the thing to understand about the programme here is that there was a decision taken here very early on that the care homes, which were the number one priority group, would be the number one priority,” she said.
“So we went out [to care homes] with mobile teams and we vaccinated when others couldn’t find a way to use Pfizer.
“We also made a decision very early on that we would maintain a three-week dose interval for that group.
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Hide Ad“Therefore we have done far more second doses than anyone else has and we’ve covered off all that population.”
She added: “We’ve kept a very keen and pacy programme. In terms of absolute numbers I don’t think we are any different.
“We are always looking for new ways and quicker ways to deploy. We’re not sure there’s any way to do it any quicker.”