Over-55s qualify for covid vaccinations from Tuesday

Following the delivery of 700,000 Pfizer vaccines on Sunday, the Health Ministry has added over-55s to the over-60s and high-risk groups that were qualified for vaccinations in its first stage. Vaccinations for the new group start on Tuesday.  Additional age groups will be added every week henceforth until the entire over-16 population is vaccinated in March. The past 24 hours saw 6,706 new coronavirus cases, a high 7.4pc testing positive. The number of seriously ill in hospital passed a thousand for the first time, reaching 1,044. Deaths rose to a total of 3,671 since the onset of the pandemic.