135,000 vaccinated at the end of February

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Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that up to 135,000 people will be vaccinated with two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine by the end of February.

Speaking on RTÉ’s News At One, he said 35,000 doses would be administered this week alone and said he did not accept that implementation could be described as slow.

“We will implement the program according to the supply chain; as we get vaccines, we will inject people.”

Mr. Martin said: “By the end of February we will have 135,000 people vaccinated with two doses.

“And that’s about 75,000 people in long-term care facilities, both residents and staff, and up to about 60,000 frontline health care workers. This relates to supplies that we can be sure of from Pfizer / BioNtech. “.

He urged people to be patient, adding that safe vaccine administration is paramount.

“More vaccines will go live and we will be in a very different position in summer time. I have no doubt about it, there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

The taoiseach said that the situation with Covid-19 is “very, very serious” and that the rapid growth of the disease “has exceeded any expectations.”

Reducing the travel limit from 5km to 2km “is not necessarily on the agenda today.”

But the advice at this point is for people to stay home for the next several weeks and only leave for “essential purposes.”

He also said that it is the government’s intention that this year’s Leaving Cert exams be “conducted along traditional lines.”

Any decision about schools will focus on preserving the school year and “we have to think beyond next week and the following week, we have to think until the end of the semester, we have to think about the Leaving Certificate, about the exams”.

The taoiseach said he would not speculate on whether the exam students would return to the classroom before other school years, but “we are aware of the disruption they face and will do our best to support them.”

He said that “schools are safe”, but it is about the mobilization of a million people in the context of a very high level of disease in the community.

That is why the government is “looking for the closure of schools to be extended until the end of the month.”

He said that “when we introduced the Level 5 restrictions on Christmas Eve, we identified January 30 as a review date and it will remain a review date.”

When asked what it would take for schools to reopen, Mr. Martin said “we want the disease trajectory to go in the right direction … we will commit to public health when we review the situation on January 30” .

Today’s Cabinet subcommittee will examine special education to see what can be done to help families of children with special needs: “We want to give them more consideration.”

When asked about other restrictions, such as construction and manufacturing closures, the taoiseach said this was “on the agenda today, we have to reduce mobility as much as we can.”

Martin said the decisions made “will not be a reflection” of how individual sectors have performed during the pandemic.

“This is a general social response to the rapid spread of this virus.”

He said that he hopes “that this time the capacity of private hospitals will have to be used and harnessed.”

Martin also said he believes the HSE is “close to signing an agreement” with private hospitals.

Looking ahead, he said it was “reasonable to say that we first vaccinate the most vulnerable before there is a substantial relaxation of restrictions.”



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