Swann gets his jab and urges others to follow his example
HEALTH Minister Robin Swann has urged people in Northern Ireland to follow his example by getting vaccinated.
Mr Swann (49) received his first dose of the Astrazeneca jab at a Ballee Pharmacy in Ballymena on the day the rollout was expanded to his age group.
The Covid-19 vaccination programme was widened yesterday to include the 45-49 age group.
Mr Swann emphasised the importance of as many getting vaccinated as quickly as possible.
“Today I came here to a community pharmacy, I got the Oxford-astrazeneca vaccine, which is the one we are using most across Northern Ireland,” he said.
“For those people who are still hesitant, who are still thinking about it — I am confident enough to come here today to take Oxford-astrazeneca. I would ask anyone to please come forward.
“Don’t let the political distraction that has come out over this take away from the public health message. What I would say to the people of Northern Ireland is to stick with us. Don’t let others actions become a reason for ignoring the current regulations we need to do.
“We are coming out of this and we are going in the right direction. We are coming into a challenging period over Easter. I’m asking people to stick with this for another few weeks.
“We still have a joint enemy to combat and that is Covid-19.”
Yesterday a further 123 new cases of Covid-19 were reported by the Department of Health.
No new deaths were recorded on Wednesday, the death toll remained at 2,115, based on the department’s figures.
Some 977 people tested positive for the virus in the last seven days.
A total of 117,289 have tested positive for Covid since the start of the pandemic.
There are 118 Covid patients in hospitals across Northern Ireland, with 17 in intensive care and nine requiring ventilation.
Hospital bed occupancy is at 99%. There are five care homes dealing with confirmed Covid outbreaks.
Figures published by Nisra show Covid was underlying cause of death for 88% of fatalities between March 2020 and December 2020.
There were 1,831 Covid-related deaths registered in Northern Ireland between March 1 and December 31 that year — 1,626 in which Covid-19 was the underlying cause of death.
Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease were the most common pre-existing condition, appearing
‘Don’t let the current political distraction here take away from the health message’
in 524 of the 1,626 Covid-19 deaths (32.2%). The next most common pre-existing conditions were diabetes (335 deaths) and hypertensive diseases (332).
Pre-existing conditions are defined as any mention on the death certificate of a condition that pre-dated or was independent of Covid-19. There were no pre-existing conditions for 157 of the 1,626 Covid-19 deaths (9.7%), while just over half (816) of Covid deaths (50.2%) had one or two pre-existing conditions.
During January and February this year, a further 975 Covid-19 related deaths were registered.
Over the entire period between March and February 2021, there were 2,814 Covid-19 related deaths registered in Northern Ireland.
Of those deaths, Covid was a cause in 2,451 and for 216 of those, there were no pre-existing conditions.