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OVER THE NEXT week, some 12,000 people across the country aged 85 and over will receive their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine as the immunization program moves into its third phase.
The health service has said it aims to move to the next cohort, those aged 80 to 84, in about three weeks.
Recent advice from the country’s advisory committee on immunization (CANI) forced the HSE to quickly switch gears to facilitate the use of two mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna, rather than the less complicated AstraZeneca vaccine.
For some, this means that the vaccination site has also changed, although most patients will be able to receive their vaccination at their GP’s office.
Who will get the vaccine this week?
Starting today, people over the age of 85 will receive the vaccine. About 12,000 doses will be delivered to GPs and vaccination centers across the country.
How will I know when my appointment is?
Speaking in an information session Last week Dr Nuala O’Connor, Covid Clinical Lead for the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP), said GPs will contact patients to inform them when their appointments are and where they need to go. .
“Almost everyone in Ireland over the age of 70 is entitled to a GP GMS (General Medical Services) card, either a full one or a doctor visiting card. This is how we know the exact number, ”he said.
“The PCRS (Primary Care Reimbursement Service) knows exactly how many more than 85 patients are registered with every GP in the country. Then we were asked to do an audit and validation exercise.
I would have patients that are officially registered, but for example I have a lady and her mother who lives in Co Meath has been sheltering with them in Cork and she was saying ‘oh, we will have to take Mom to County Meath for two doses’ and I said ‘no, we will make it’.
“We have some people like that, we added them to our list and we have some people who just chose not to get a medical card. We have another lady who is from Europe who has come to stay with her family here. She is a European citizen. There are some people like that. “
Dr. O’Connor said that the HSE sent an email to her office asking her to confirm the number on the PCRS with her own database and she responded with figures to include any additional patients.
Each GP office will have a “backup” list for the day, with patients to call for additional doses. This will ensure there is no waste if they manage to get more than six doses from each vial or if they have cancellations, O’Connor said.
“What we have done is we ask for 16 vials, each of which will have six doses; We can absolutely take six doses, ”he explained.
“But the good news is that with the dead space syringes, hopefully we will get an additional 16 doses, one dose per vial, so we will have our contingency list of the next group and we will have them ready.”
What vaccine will people get?
The National Immunization Advisory Committee (NIAC) has advised that people age 70 and older should only receive mRNA vaccines, such as those from Pfizer / BioNTech or Moderna, whenever possible.
This followed guidance from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) which stated that there was insufficient data to provide a figure for how well the vaccine will work in people over 55 years of age.
“However, protection is expected, given that an immune response is observed in this age group and based on experience with other vaccines; as there is reliable information on safety in this population, the scientific experts of the EMA considered that the vaccine can be used in older adults, ”said the EMA.
Last week, the World Health Organization recommended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in all adults. However, Ireland’s advisory committee has not issued any new advice.
This means that this week the 12,000 doses given to people over 85 will be the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.
What will the AstraZeneca vaccine be used for?
The first delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived last week and the first doses were administered to healthcare workers since Monday.
Ireland will continue to receive doses of this vaccine and 22,000 doses will be administered to frontline health workers this week.
Where will the vaccines be administered?
Most people will receive the vaccine at their GP’s office. This week, 84 practices, many with multiple doctors working on them, will participate in the initial rollout.
Smaller practices or those with fewer than 200 patients in this age group will ‘pool’ with other local GPs, and some will be grouped into a larger office.
The Moderna vaccine is packaged in 100 doses and the Pfizer one can only be packaged up to 36 doses, so these measures are to ensure that no doses are wasted in practices that are less than 85.
A small number of mass vaccination centers will also be used at places like The Helix at DCU and the Cork Institute of Technology. The Helix will be used by 121 GPs this week to vaccinate 1,600 of their patients.
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Next week marks a good milestone as the vaccination of those over 85 who live in the community begins. Most vaccinations will occur in GP practices. In @DCU 121 GPs will also meet and vaccinate 1600 of their patients at one of our vaccination centers. @HSELive @ICGPnews pic.twitter.com/ZibB3aVXUk
– Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) February 12, 2021
What about people who need to be vaccinated at home?
The HSE has said that arrangements will be made, when possible, to transport people to their appointments if necessary.
Talking to TheJournal.ieDr. Denis McCauley, Chairman of the IMO’s GP Committee, said that specific arrangements have not yet been made for people who are homebound.
“There is significant planning going on in the background to see if there is a way to get this sensitive vaccine to people, or if we can get an alternative; we want to wait until we have access to an mRNA vaccine that is more mobile?
“The planning on this is very active, we know that this is a vulnerable group.”
How long will this entire cohort take?
There are over 480,000 people over the age of 70 in Ireland, with over 72,000 over the age of 85.
HSE CEO Paul Reid has said he expects everyone in this 70-plus cohort to have their first dose in mid-April and their second dose in mid-May.
The HSE has said that during this third phase it will also return to older people in residential care who did not receive a vaccine during the initial phases of the program due to outbreaks or their own diagnosis with Covid-19.
Although plans had to change significantly in a short space of time for this next phase, Dr. Denis McCauley said GPs feel confident in their own preparation.
“Once it gets going we will be fine. People have been receiving their emails and placing their orders, ”he said.
“This is a new system, hopefully there will be no technical problems and once we have completed a delivery cycle, everyone will be much more comfortable.”
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