Another wave of Covid-19 is set to hit Northern Ireland, chief scientific adviser Professor Ian Young has said. Prof Young said the only question was how large the wave would be and what impact it would have on the region's crisis-hit health service.
He made the comments as he joined with Northern Ireland's chief medical officer Michael McBride and the Public Health Agency to urge eligible people to come forward for their Covid-19 and flu vaccines this winter. "At the moment we have three ways of looking at the prevalence of Covid in our community.
First we monitor levels of the virus in wastewater at a number of separate sites across Northern Ireland," Prof Young said. "Secondly, there is an ongoing population survey which samples a random selection of the Northern Ireland population. "Thirdly, we monitor very closely the number of people with Covid in hospitals." Prof Young said that all of those indicators are beginning to show early signs of an increase in transmission.
He added that he strongly expects that to become apparent in the next one to two weeks whenever people begin to look at the numbers. "None of that is surprising, given that we are moving into the winter months and that there will have been a waning of immunity since older people had their last booster vaccine," Prof Young said, "The numbers that are in the public domain at the moment may look OK at the moment, but the early indicators we are seeing all point in only one direction. Latest Coronavirus news "The question is not going to be whether or not we have an increase in cases, the question is going to be how large is that wave and how great is its impact in terms of further contributing to hospital pressures." More than one million flu and