Healthy young Derry folk could get COVID vaccine by April tool shows

Steven Wooding, a physicist from Southampton, has developed a specific vaccine calculator for the north.

His ‘Vaccine Queue Calculator’ was created as part of the Omni Calculator Project. Omni Calculator is a tech startup company that creates hundreds of custom-built calculators.

Steven said his vaccine queue calculator is based on the UK government’s nine-point priority list.

‘‘It helps you see how many people are ahead of you, and when are you most likely to get the jab. It even compares the results obtained with the real vaccination rate with those from the Northern Ireland Executive’s plan,’’ he said.

"I have a friend in Belfast who has at least 359 507 people in front of him in the queue, meaning he can expect to get his first dose between April 10 and June 5.’’

According to the Omni calculator website in order to calculate your likely place in the COVID vaccine queue, it asks you to enter details about yourself such as your age.

It then asks if you are living in, or work in a care home. Further questions ask if you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant in the next three months.

The calculator also asks if you are classified as vulnerable, if you are a frontline health or social worker or have underlying health conditions.

The website says that you will then see an estimate of the minimum and the maximum number of people who are inline to receive the vaccine before you.

It also indicates how long it might be before you get both doses of the vaccine and be fully protected, based on the vaccination rate.

The ‘Journal’ entered an input for an 18-year-old from Derry with no vulnerabilities.

The calculator returned the following: “Based on your profile, you are not in any priority group. Given an uptake of 67.5%, there are between 338,176 and 722,367 people in front of you in the queue for a first dose of COVID vaccine across Northern Ireland.

“Given a vaccination rate of 75,687 a week and an uptake of 67.5%, you should expect to receive your first dose of vaccine between April 23 and July 3.

“You should then get your second dose by between July 16 and September 9..

Mr. Wooding’s vaccine queue calculator can be found at the website: https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/vaccine-queue-northern-ireland