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NINE ULTRA-LOW temperature Covid-19 vaccine freezer trucks arrived in the country to assist with the deployment of a Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.
The vaccine must be kept at -70 degrees and specialized freezers are needed to store the vaccine.
Speaking today during questions from leaders, the Taoiseach said the work of the government’s vaccine task force is “progressing well.”
Planning is being done on how to implement the vaccine, with the infrastructure for the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine “already coming into play,” Micheál Martin said.
“Yesterday saw the delivery of up to nine ultra-low temperature refrigerators to the country. Trucks are stored at Citywest, ”said the Taoiseach,
Logistics is a key workflow you are working on. In the IT infrastructure, a comprehensive database will need to be created regarding who gets what. There is work in the workforce that administers the vaccine.
“Because of the scale of this, it will be more than the normal workforce that will administer the vaccine. There is also surveillance, monitoring and interpretation of the data afterwards in terms of how it is working, the results, etc.
“There is the sequence of who gets the vaccine first, in what order and how it happens. Of course, communications will be a vital thread. Then there is the general governance and supervision of the operation, ”he said.
Regarding the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, Martín informed Dáil that the storage refrigerators that are needed have already arrived in the country.
“They will be commissioned in the middle of next week. Then they must be distributed within five days from the central depot when a vaccine finally arrives here, ”he said.
He said the task force is charged with launching a national immunization program, and said he would rather let them “get on with their work” before presenting their plan to him on December 11.
Martin said the HSE will be a key factor in implementing the plan, while the Department of Health and the Minister of Health will oversee operations.
The European Medicines Agency will evaluate the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine “at the latest” before December 29, “maybe sooner,” the Taoiseach said.
He said the agency’s responsibility is “enormous,” and he told Dail that his job is to recommend that a vaccine be safe and effective.
A “pressure zone” should not be created around the agency in light of today’s news that the UK is moving at a faster pace, he said.
Regarding the Moderna vaccine, Taosieach said the EMA’s opinion is looking to early January for a meeting to assess its application for market authorization.
Peadar Toíbín de Aontú asked the Taoiseach about the State indemnifying the pharmaceutical companies that produce Covid-19 vaccines for any liability arising from complications with their deployment in the coming months.
The move is considered standard practice, according to a government spokesperson.
Martin said the compensation is part of the European pre-purchase agreements.
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“Yes, the companies have been compensated. There is no set amount. The conclusion here, as a deputy, is this: either we want a vaccine in a difficult global pandemic or not. Now be real. This is unprecedented in terms of progress in the application of this vaccine, ”the Taoiseach told Toíbín.
“Without pre-purchase agreements, it just wouldn’t have happened, it couldn’t have happened, it wouldn’t have happened. And the bottom line is this, this was very clear from the beginning, if anyone had followed it in terms of the European debate on this.
“The European Commission, on behalf of the Member States, entered into agreements with companies in terms of pre-purchase in order to obtain vaccines to deal with a virus that is paralyzing our economy and the economies of the world,” he said.
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