Coronavirus vaccinations have now been carried out in 80% of all care homes in Northern Ireland, Stormont Health Minister Robin Swann has revealed.
In a statement, he said 33,683 vaccines have been administered to care home residents and frontline staff which is "a significant achievement in a short space of time".
Northern Ireland today began giving the second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, three weeks after the roll-out first began.
Joanna Sloan, a sister in charge of Covid vaccination for the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, was the first person in the North to receive the vaccine on 8 December.
Meanwhile, there has been a big increase in new Covid-19 cases in Northern Ireland with 1,566 positive tests confirmed in the past 24 hours.
There have also been 14 more coronavirus-related deaths with 13 of these occurring during the past 24 hours.
A total of 1,305 people with the disease have died in the North, while the cumulative number of infections now stands at 68,762.
Meanwhile, Britain's government also reported 53,135 new cases of Covid-19 today, the highest number since mass testing started in mid-2020 and up sharply from the previous record of 41,385 set yesterday.
The number of new deaths recorded within 28 days of a positive Covid test also rose to 414 from yesterday's 357, taking the total since the start of the pandemic to 71,567.
The Department of Health in Northern Ireland yesterday reported a further 20 coronavirus-related deaths for the previous 48 hour period with 1,634 people tested positive.
Northern Ireland also entered a new six-week lockdown on 26 December, and the first week measures are the toughest yet, with a form of curfew in operation from 8pm, shops closed from that time and all indoor and outdoor gatherings prohibited until 6am.
Stormont Health Minister Robin Swann pleaded today: "Please stay at home as much as possible. Please don't be tempted to visit friends this week. It's not just about complying with the regulations, it’s about keeping yourself and others safe.
"A New Year’s Eve house party would not just be against the law. It could be a super spreader event, could leave people very seriously ill and could even cost lives."
Dr Tom Black, the chair of the British Medical Association in Northern Ireland and a GP based in Derry, said numbers in Northern Ireland have been "consistently high" since before Christmas.
He said they have had much more trouble in the North than the Republic has had in terms of controlling the virus during the second wave.
It has been made "very clear" that the public are expected to stay at home during the current six week lockdown, he said, and they "really need" people to adhere to the rules.
"The next few weeks will be much worse because of the socialising over the holiday period," Dr Black told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
"The pressure on general practices and holiday services will be at its peak probably in the second or third week in January."
In terms of vaccinations, Dr Black said they have managed to get most nursing home residents - about 11,000 people - vaccinated over the last couple of weeks.
He said they are hoping to get the Astrazeneca/Oxford vaccine this week.
"And then the GPs can start what we would regard as the big vaccination programmes, hundreds of thousands of people getting vaccinated because it's much easier to use the Astrazeneca one."
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