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People over the age of 70 living at home are expected to wait until the end of February or early March before they can receive the Covid-19 vaccine from their GP, as it became known yesterday.
Dr Denis McCauley, a spokesman for GPs for the Irish Medical Organization, said GPs were likely not to get involved until there was enough vaccine to offer to older groups in the community.
Most of the first shipment of Pfizer BioNtech vaccine is expected to be used to immunize residents in long-term care and front-line healthcare workers at their own sites.
Patients who, in the initial stages, would be offered the vaccine by their family doctor would generally be those who were also in line to receive the annual flu vaccine, he noted.
He said that about half of the people who received the Covid-19 jab would have arm pain for about a day.
GPs will have only five days to administer the vaccine and prevent it from getting too hot.
He spoke as the high-level report of the working group established to develop the plan for the deployment of the vaccine was delivered to the Minister of Health last night.
The Health Department could not say yesterday how many will be eligible for the first vaccinations in January.
An important element of the plan is expected to include a high level of security following an Interpol warning about the theft of vaccines by criminal gangs.
The need for people living in the community to wait several months to receive the vaccine comes as three other Covid-related deaths were announced yesterday. Another 313 new cases of the virus were diagnosed, indicating that the numbers are still stable for now, with two weeks to go until Christmas. The number of hospitalized was reduced to 197, but there are still 35 seriously ill patients in intensive care.
Donegal, Kilkenny and Louth have the highest incidence of 14 days, while it is lowest in Leitrim, Kerry and Cork. The latest report on healthcare worker infections shows that 3,783 were diagnosed with the virus between August and the end of November. Of these, 88 were hospitalized and seven were treated in intensive care.
Meanwhile, the HSE is expanding the nasal spray flu vaccine for children to include adolescents ages 13-17. It was previously only available to ages 2-12, but adoption has been disappointing and vaccines will be out of date in January.
No flu cases have yet been recorded here this winter.
Dr. Chantal Migone, a public health medicine specialist, said that so far nearly 200,000 children between the ages of 2 and 12 have received the nasal flu vaccine through doctors’ offices and pharmacies across the country.
“The first batches of the nasal flu vaccine are due in mid-January, so it is important for parents to come forward to vaccinate their children now, to protect them against the flu. Children are more likely than adults to have serious complications from the flu.
“During the last 10 years in Ireland, 4,750 children needed to be admitted to hospital due to complications from the flu, 183 of them had to go to intensive care and, sadly, 41 children died.
“Children with chronic illnesses are at higher risk for serious complications from the flu.”
Meanwhile, a prominent psychiatrist has said that one in five people have “significantly increased psychological distress” that is likely attributed to anxiety about Covid-19 and the effects of the restrictions.
Dr Brendan Kelly from Trinity College Dublin said that up to 86 percent of healthcare workers worldwide reported feeling stressed and in Ireland up to 40 percent of radiographers surveyed showed signs of burnout : 30 percent considered changing jobs or retiring, wrote in the Irish Medical Journal.
Psychological distress among healthcare workers was found to be about twice that of the general population.
Irish independent
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