Up to one in 40 may have Covid in parts of Northern Ireland, scientist warns

The Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine is loaded into a syringe before being administered to a patient at Falls Surgery on the Falls Road, Belfast.

As many as one in 40 people may have coronavirus in some parts of Northern Ireland, the region’s chief scientific adviser has warned.

Professor Ian Young said one in 100 had a Covid-19 diagnosis in the last week, but that is likely to be an under-representation of the true number of cases because many people are asymptomatic and are not diagnosed.