Northern Ireland reached a significant milestone yesterday with more than one million people - almost 70 per cent of the adult population - receiving their first dose of the Covid vaccine.
It is a tremendous achievement and comes five months after the first vaccine jabs were administered in the north.
More than half a million people have been given their second dose, showing we are well on our way to providing the best available protection to our citizens.
Tribute must be paid to Patricia Donnelly, the head of the vaccination programme, and all those working in the centres providing the jabs, the GP surgeries and the community pharmacies, that have been part of an incredible collective effort to inoculate the population against this deadly virus.
All those who have played a role at any level in this combined campaign should be proud of their success to date.
Ms Donnelly is determined to maintain momentum and keep vaccinating people as quickly as stocks allow, while pointing out that supplies are limited at present.
However, that is expected to improve next month and she also indicated that an announcement could be made soon on opening up appointments for the next age group, the 25-29 year olds.
The speed of the rollout and the uptake of the vaccine have become even more crucial in recent days as we have seen a sharp upsurge in cases in Britain as a result of the Indian variant.
There is increasing concern about this strain which is thought to be more transmissable than the Kent variant. On Monday, there were 86 local councils in England with five or more cases of the Indian variant.
Such is its spread that fears are growing that the planned lifting of remaining restrictions on social contact in England on June 21 could be jeopardised.
Boris Johnson said yesterday the data was being kept under close review and urged people to exercise caution. Meanwhile, there was confused messaging coming from his government on international travel.
In terms of the Indian variant, the numbers in Northern Ireland have so far remained low and a further update is expected this week.
There is much we need to learn about this latest strain of the virus but it is also clear that we still have a long way to go in this pandemic.
