Joanna Sloan was vaccinated at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast on Tuesday morning.
Anthony Neeson
The 90-year-old woman from County Fermanagh is the first woman in the world to receive the Kovid-19 vaccine outside of trial.
Margaret Keenan, who turns 91 next week, was given a job as a fisherman at the University Hospital in Coventry, England, on Tuesday morning, December 8.
That morning, in Belfast, the first person to receive the vaccine in Ireland was nursing Sister Joanna Sloan from County Dunn. She was vaccinated at the Royal Victoria Hospital and will now lead the vaccine rollout at the Belfast Health Trust.
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During the immunizations, 25,000 doses of Pfizer / Biotech Covid-19 vaccine arrived in Northern Ireland. Last week, the UK government became the first government to give the green light for the vaccine.
Northern Health Minister Robin Swann welcomed the primary consignment, which arrived late last week.
“We have been looking forward to this news for many months and it is very welcome to receive the first watch vaccine today,” he said.
“It is clear to us that we still have a long way to go, but we can be optimistic.”
Following the approval of the Pfizer and BioNotech vaccines, Swan said, “We were able to move quickly to coordinate the arrival of the first shipment and start the planned rollout early next week.”
Vaccinators will receive the vaccine first and priority groups will follow quickly. The Joint Committee on Immunization and Immunization leads us to prioritize. It identified care home staff, staff, and health and community care workers as priority groups. More details on the priority should be confirmed by next week.
There are significant challenges in delivering the vaccine to care homes. The Department of Health is actively examining all avenues for achieving this priority goal, within the supply conditions prescribed by the regulatory body MARA. ”
The Minister of Health said that immunization would be a big, long-term logistic challenge.
“The rate of our progress will depend on the available supplies supplied as part of the program across the UK. Everyone needs two doses, several weeks in between. Roll-20 will take a big chunk of 2021, so we all have to wait patiently while waiting for our opportunity. ”
Vaccine role in the Republic is expected to begin in January.
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