THE FIRST COVID-19 vaccine on the island of Ireland will be administered this morning. 

The Pfizer/BioNTech dose will be administered at 8am at a mass vaccination centre at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. 

The first recipient will be one of an 800-plus team of vaccinators that will be involved in the subsequent roll-out programme.

Stocks of coronavirus vaccine arrived in Northern Ireland on Friday having first come through Dublin Port. 

There are 25,000 doses in the initial batch of the vaccine.

The stocks have been taken to a central storage facility operated by a private company. The location is not being disclosed.

Health Minister Robin Swann said last week: “We have been anticipating this news for many months and it is hugely welcome to receive the first batch of the vaccine.”

“I have been clear that we still have a long journey ahead of us but we can be optimistic.

The UK formally approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Wednesday, with 40 million doses of the vaccine already purchased.

The vaccine was authorised by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) for emergency use.

The first vaccine to be administered in Northern Ireland’s comes after the Department of Health confirmed 397 further cases of Covid-19 in Northern Ireland and nine more deaths. 

Healthcare workers across the six counties will be able to get the vaccine through the remainder of December at seven centres spread across the region.

Two of the facilities are located on hospital grounds – at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald and Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital – and the rest in leisure centres.

The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer jab, enough to vaccinate 20 million people, as people need to receive two doses. – as two doses need to be administered

There are 800,000 doses in the first tranche, meaning that 400,000 people will be vaccinated initially.

The vaccines have been stored in undisclosed secure locations throughout the UK to ensure the security of the vaccine and of those storing and delivering it.

The Republic, meanwhile, is due to start administering the vaccine early next year pending approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA). 

Advance purchase orders have been made for multiple vaccines as the government waits for the EMA to make a decision on whether vaccines that have been developed should be authorised.

The EMA is due to make its decision by the end of the month. 

The National Immunisation Advisory Committee will decide on the future rollout in the Republic and will make a decision in the coming weeks.