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Several opposition TDs have raised concerns about the government’s Covid-19 vaccination strategy.
Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane said there was a “lack of detail” surrounding the plan and said there were problems related to staffing levels and infrastructure.
The co-leader of the Social Democrats, Róisín Shortall, said she was concerned about the number of vaccines available for the HSE.
His comments follow a briefing with experts involved in coordinating mass inoculations.
The briefing was attended by Professor Brian MacCraith, Head of Ireland’s Covid-19 Vaccine Task Force, Professor Karina Butler, Chair of the National Immunization Advisory Committee, and Dr. Colm Henry, HSE Clinical Director.
Yesterday, HSE CEO Paul Reid said that 15,314 first doses of the vaccine have been administered out of 81,900 doses that have been administered.
This morning, the European Commission announced that it has agreed an agreement to purchase an additional 300 million doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, which should mean that the country will receive an additional 3.3 million doses.
Mr. Cullinane said that in today’s briefing he was unable to get clarity on the number of staff that will be needed to administer the vaccines.
He said there are currently 180 community vaccinators administering vaccines to those in nursing homes and residential care facilities.
This is done five days a week, with HSE’s commitment to increase it to seven days a week.
“We need to see the evidence for that,” Cullinane said.
He said 15 mass vaccination centers have been promised, but as of this morning only one site has been identified.
“They still do not have details regarding the other centers,” he said.
Ms. Shortall told RTÉ’s Drivetime that the HSE has not made it clear how many vaccinators will be available to assist in the rollout implementation.
He said the HSE told him that there were 180 school vaccinators working restricted hours and that there were 1,700 peer vaccinators in the hospital, which he said, “they are essentially nurses doing other work.”
Ms. Shortall said: “We cannot afford to have the problems that occurred with testing and tracing.”
He said that “as a matter of urgency,” the HSE must “look in all possible areas to bring personnel on board to vaccinate people.”
“We need to look in all possible areas of the health sector for people who can be trained to help in the execution of this program.
“We know that recruiting takes a long time, it is too late to talk about this,” he said.
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The head of the government’s vaccine working group said he did not accept that the launch of the vaccine to date has been slow.
However, Professor MacCraith said he was cautious about giving a number for how many people will be vaccinated during the first quarter of the launch.
He said the number of people receiving the vaccine should “be limited only by the supply” of the vaccine.
“We are confident that just over 40,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines arrive per week. That’s the one thing we’re absolutely sure of. Just multiply the number of weeks left in the quarter and that’s the commitment,” he said.
Professor MacCraith said there is growing confidence that the “game changer” will be the arrival of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine.
He reiterated that as vaccines arrive in Ireland, they will be given to the most vulnerable first, adding that the vaccines will be delivered to 180 nursing homes next week.
The deployment of nursing homes to intensify
The rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in nursing homes is accelerating by a week.
All residents and staff in these settings are expected to have received their first dose on January 24.
The acceleration of the plan has been possible thanks to the vaccine reserves that had been kept aside in case of supply problems.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly told RTÉ News that speeding up delivery in these environments was good news.
He said that everyone in these settings will receive the first dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine in the next 16 days.
Minister Donnelly said 26,000 doses of the 40,000 week supply, which had been kept as a “buffer”, would now be deployed.
He said: “We had been holding a one-week supply as a buffer because there had been problems in the supply chain.
“Pfizer has been delivering solidly and on time. We have had very good commitments from them.
“Obviously nursing homes are a high priority, so what we are doing is taking 26,000 doses of that buffer that we had.”
He said this meant doing three weeks of vaccinations in two weeks.
Minister Donnelly said that this acceleration would mean that more than 70,000 people in nursing homes and more than 70,000 health workers would have received their first doses by the end of January.
He said the plan is for the second doses to be given to people in nursing home settingsc in mid-February.
‘100% acceptance’ of the vaccine in residential care – HSE
So far, there has been “100% acceptance” of the Covid-19 vaccine in residential care settings, the HSE chief operating officer said.
Anne O’Connor said the HSE is “limited by” the number of doses available of the Pfizer / BioNtech vaccine.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne, he said that inoculating more than 50,000 people a week “would be an exaggeration” for the health service, adding that “the challenge is around certainty of supply.”
He said the IT system being used to support vaccination implementation is “very tedious” and “time consuming”, but it is being addressed and people should be able to reserve their vaccine online “in the next few weeks.”
O’Connor said that the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine is much more restrictive than other vaccines.
He added that once other vaccines are available, they can be administered by GPs and pharmacists, which will help significantly increase the number of people vaccinated.
Additional information Laura Hogan, Dimitri O’Donnell
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