ANNOUNCING plans to consult on mandatory vaccination for new recruits to the health and social care workforce, health minister Robin Swann said all options remain under consideration.
Yet it appears Northern Ireland will not be following the example of England by making the Covid jab compulsory for all frontline staff.
Mr Swann emphasised that vaccination is central to efforts to support services as they face into a winter which is expected to bring unprecedented pressures.
But expressing concern that making vaccines mandatory for existing staff could "destabilise an already fragile workforce", he said he remains convinced that persuasion is the most effective approach.
One must wonder if healthcare staff - with easy access to vaccines, clinical knowledge of their effectiveness, and ample evidence of the deadly impact of Covid-19 - have not been persuaded by now, what remains to convince those yet to come forward?
A different approach is being taken in England, where health secretary Sajid Javid has said the government has a responsibility to give both vulnerable patients and staff the best possible protection.
Healthcare workers there will be given 12 weeks to ensure they have both jabs if they are to remain in employment.
Since yesterday, care homes in England are already expected to refuse entry to workers who are not fully vaccinated.
The number of unvaccinated staff has fallen from 88,000 to 32,000 since the requirement was announced and ministers hope for a similar impact among health workers.
Helping inform that decision is data showing there remain around 100,000 unvaccinated staff - information frustratingly lacking in Northern Ireland.
The Irish News learned this week that only 75 per cent of nursing staff in the Southern trust had been inoculated at their own site by the end of October, although no figures appear to exist for those vaccinated elsewhere.
At the same time the wider vaccine programme still appears to be lagging behind other areas.
Less than a fifth of 12 to 15-year-olds - an age group with a high rate of infections - have been jabbed, compared to more than half in Scotland.
Walk-in and pop-up clinics are now planned to try to increase the pace of both first and second doses and booster jabs.
With Covid infections edging upwards again, and the worst of winter pressures still ahead, a renewed sense of urgency is clearly required if we are to avoid being forced into much more draconian action to protect the health service.
