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The government will meet weekly and monitor Covid-19 numbers in an effort to ensure that infections in the Republic do not follow the rising figures in Northern Ireland, the Taoiseach said.
Speaking at the Dáil, Micheál Martin said: “We are now getting into a situation after Friday where people will be allowed to go home.
“People will want to meet their grandparents and parents. In order for us to do that safely, all of our behavior from now on is important. Every contact is important.”
He added: “Once a certain level is reached, the virus spreads very quickly and then grows exponentially.
“We have a lot of testing capacity, but we have to be very vigilant now. But what we are seeing in Northern Ireland could happen here if we allow things to get out of hand, which we are not going to do.”
He said that “border counties are a concern for us.”
He added: “We will meet weekly to monitor the situation. NPHET will meet weekly. Our officials will meet weekly to constantly monitor and monitor our situation and what is happening in Northern Ireland.”
The HSE COO said they are concerned about the increase in the number of people who have come forward this week for Covid testing.
He also said that there is a higher rate of positivity in recent days.
Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, Anne O’Connor said that “the more you mix, the more contacts people have, the greater the risk.”
He said any winter can be challenging for his system and “there is certainly no question that our system will be under pressure in January.”
Meanwhile, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly previously said that the vaccine certificates are part of the Covid-19 vaccine implementation plan.
But Donnelly said they needed to see what level of impact vaccines have in terms of protecting people from the effects of the virus and the impact they have on transmitting the virus.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said it was necessary to see how effective the vaccine is in reducing transmission, adding that this was not yet known by the regulator or the producer of the vaccine.
Once that information is known, he said, informed decisions could be made about how exactly a certificate could be used.
The minister said he had heard that airlines were looking into the possibility of people who needed vaccination certificates to fly.
By this time next year, he said, anyone who wants the vaccine should have received it.
The focus now is on listening carefully to everyone’s concerns and ensuring that clinical experts engage with people, he added.
Minister Donnelly said no country had any details regarding how many vaccines they would initially receive, adding that a decision has yet to be made on which nursing homes would be prioritized when the first batches of the vaccine arrive.
Decisions about who will get the vaccine will depend on how many doses Ireland receives, he said.
He explained that the European Medicines Agency advances its decision on the vaccine to December 21, which means that Ireland could be considering starting vaccinations before the new year or very early in 2021.
What you need to know about the government vaccination plan
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Ireland’s vaccination plan was announced yesterday and the government approved full vaccination allocation sequence is detailed below.
It is understood that the sequencing of population groups may need to be adapted as more evidence becomes available on the efficacy, safety, and suitability of the vaccine for specific population groups.
Donnelly said current sequencing maximizes keeping people alive and keeping people healthy from the virus.
People will be able to receive the Covid-19 vaccine in five types of locations after the Cabinet has agreed on the plan.
They include hospitals, nursing homes, GP practices, pharmacies, and mass vaccination centers.
Under the plan, up to 14 million doses of the vaccine could be purchased and will be available to people for free.
GPs and pharmacies will have a bigger role to play once a large part of the population has received the vaccine.
Through its membership of the EU, Ireland has ensured access to six potential vaccine candidates in volumes that are sufficient to vaccinate the entire population, assuming all vaccines are licensed.
The plan establishes that the storage of the vaccines will be centralized and managed by a single logistics provider, “with substantial relevant experience.”
Since different types of vaccine require different temperature storage requirements, HSE’s logistics partner has prepared a substantial storage capacity for each temperature range.
Plans to launch the vaccine in Ireland are at an advanced stage, according to Paul Reid, CEO of Health Service.
He said the HSE has assigned 26 private nursing homes to be part of the first deployment of the vaccine.
Mr. Reid told RTÉ’s Prime Time last night that he expected the launch to begin at the end of the year.
Yesterday, there were eight more deaths related to Covid-19 and 329 cases reported to the Department of Health.
This means that there have been a total of 2,134 deaths and 76,776 cases in Ireland.
The figures also show that 196 people are hospitalized with the virus, 31 of whom are in intensive care, two fewer than yesterday.
There were 13 additional hospitalizations in the past 24 hours.
The incidence rate of the virus in 14 days per 100,000 inhabitants is 84.7.
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