Tearful scenes as new mother who contracted Covid-19 laid to rest

By Rebecca Black, PA

There were tearful scenes in Derry/Londonderry on Monday as a new mother who died after contracting Covid-19 before she got to hold her daughter was laid to rest.

Samantha Willis, 35, died on August 20 at Altnagelvin Hospital.

Her two-week-old daughter, Eviegrace, was baptised during the service at St Columb’s Church.

She had not been vaccinated before she died, and her husband Josh urged all those not vaccinated to come forward for the jab.

The funeral came on the day that nine further deaths of patients who had tested positive for Covid-19 were reported in Northern Ireland, along with another 1,320 confirmed cases of the virus.

On Monday morning there were 352 Covid-positive patients in hospital, of whom 43 were in intensive care.

Northern Ireland has the highest Covid-10 infection rate in the UK, at 579.5 per 100,000 people, the highest since January 8.

Fermanagh & Omagh has the highest rate of any local authority in the UK, with a total of 1,003.9 cases per 100,000 people recorded in the seven days to August 18.

Stormont health minister Robin Swann appeared to rule out another lockdown being agreed at the next meeting of the Executive in September.

“I don’t think we are at that point yet about putting more restrictions back in,” he told the BBC.

“The Executive meets again in the first week in September in regards to what’s still in place and what we’ll look at in regards to the next steps, and that’s where that decision will be made.”

Meanwhile, it has been estimated that around 8,000 vaccinations were administered in the Big Jab Weekend initiative. The official figure is expected to be released later.

Following the closure of the large-scale vaccination centre at the SSE Arena in Belfast, the next phase of the programme is set to focus on localised pop-up walk-in clinics, both in high footfall locations and in areas where accessibility issues and other barriers may have impacted on take-up.