Nine deaths from Covid reported in North as unvaccinated are warned they will get virus

Another nine deaths from Covid-19 have been reported in Northern Ireland within a 24-hour period, the North's Department of Health confirmed on Thursday.

Reporting its latest Covid-19 figures, the department also said that 1,963 new cases of the disease had also been confirmed in the same period.

The total number of Covid-19 vaccines administered in the North now stands at 2,389,725.

The latest figures come as Derry GP and chair of the Northern Ireland branch of the British Medical Association Dr Tom Black warned of the vulnerability of the unvaccinated in Northern Ireland as Covid infection rates there have become the highest in Britain and Ireland.

Nursing homes see small but ‘concerning’ rise in Covid-19 cases

---

Entertainment sector should have reopened this summer, immunologist says

---

Minister for Arts has ‘sidelined’ herself in discussion on reopening sector – SF

---

Minister tells music industry of bid to raise plight within Coalition

---

The onus was on the unvaccinated to take action to protect their families, their friends, themselves and society, he told RTÉ Radio 1's News at One.

At his local hospital three-quarters of the Covid patients in ICU were unvaccinated, he noted.

There was a young cohort who were vaccine hesitant and appeared to be getting their information from inaccurate and unreliable sources, he said.

They had to be motivated to push past the sense of complacency that they would not get the virus, he said.

The Delta variant was very transmissible. “How are you going to avoid it for the next six months, 12 months, 18 months? There’s no avoiding it, you will get it,” he warned.

Contact tracing was overwhelmed as there were now 10,000 new cases per week, and each of those could have three to five contacts. Contact tracing was best done when numbers were lower, he said.