[ad_1]
The Executive of the Health Service has resumed the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine in several hospitals throughout the country.
HSE chief Paul Reid said the priority is to resume the program for the 30,000 people who were due to receive the vaccine this week.
Mr. Reid said the HSE wants to restart vaccination against AstraZeneca in “a safe way.”
Brochures have been sent to hospitals for patients detailing the latest scientific updates on the vaccine.
Beaumont Hospital restarted its AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccination program at 8:30 a.m. following the recommendations of the National Immunization Advisory Committee (NIAC).
Blanchardstown and Connolly Hospitals have also restarted their programs, as well as other hospitals in Cavan and Kerry.
Jack O’Brien, 18, of Navan in Co Meath, was one of those who received his vaccine at Beaumont Hospital this morning.
The Leaving Cert student, who received a kidney transplant in 2005, was due to receive his first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine last weekend when he received a text message to cancel his appointment just an hour and a half ahead of schedule.
The HSE said it expects supplies of the three vaccines to increase over the next three weeks.
Use of the vaccine had been stopped for six days pending an investigation by the European Medicines Agency after a report of very rare blood clotting events in Norway.
The EMA concluded that the vaccine is safe and effective and is not associated with a general increase in blood clots.
This morning, as the AstraZeneca vaccine restarts, our plan to protect some of the most vulnerable continues as well. Today and tomorrow, 3,700 people over 75 years of age, patients of GPs, will receive the first and second doses at the Helix vaccination center. @DCU. @ICGPnews # COVID-19
– Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) March 20, 2021
Health experts have calculated that the chances of very rare blood clotting events occurring in AstraZeneca vaccine recipients in Norway and Germany are “one in a million” cases, and that is 200 times less likely than the already very low risk of a young person dying from Covid-19.
Although no causal link could be established between the AstraZeneca vaccine and those very rare blood clots, the European Medicines Agency has said that people being offered the vaccine should now receive up-to-date information on what to look out for. in connection with these very rare events.
This has cleared the way for vaccinating a relatively modest number of medically vulnerable people in acute hospital settings later today, with much more to follow among healthcare workers and medically vulnerable people over the next week.
Mr Reid tweeted this morning that 3,700 people over the age of 75 will receive their first or second dose at the vaccination center in Helix on the Dublin City University campus this weekend.
These were the two groups that were directly affected by the pause in the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine since last Sunday.
The HSE is working to reschedule vaccination clinics for these groups and said it will contact colleagues or patients to arrange those appointments.
Work has continued for the past week to identify medically vulnerable people at risk of developing serious illness from Covid-19 who should be invited for vaccinations.
The HSE and the health sector in general are working to invite these people to get vaccinated, mainly through hospital services and the wider disability and mental health sector.
The HSE may also try to reach people through their GPs and through public information and advertising.
For now, you are asking people in this medically vulnerable group not to take any action.
They do not need to call their GP or the hospital. Health and wellness teams will contact these people when your vaccine becomes available.
Read: Latest Covid-19 Stories
Before the decision to resume AstraZeneca’s vaccination program this weekend, the HSE already had plans to vaccinate between 75,000 and 85,000 people next week with the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.
Between 70,000 and 75,000 of those vaccines will target the 75-79 year age group and will be delivered in the community through the national network of GPs.
The expectation is that by the end of next week between 240,000 and 250,000 people older than 70 years will have been vaccinated.
In addition, about 1,000 frontline healthcare workers and 3,500 residents of long-term healthcare facilities will receive doses of vaccination next week.
In all, about 5,500 medically vulnerable people were postponed vaccinations last weekend when use of the AstraZeneca vaccine was discontinued.
The HSE will now aim to catch up on those vaccines and advance vaccination of the next 20,000 patients in this cohort, now that use of the AstraZeneca vaccine can be resumed.
Meanwhile, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen threatened to halt AstraZeneca vaccine exports if the bloc did not receive its deliveries first, in a growing dispute over shipping delays.
“We have the option to prohibit a planned export. That is the message for AstraZeneca: it first fulfills its contract with Europe before starting to deliver to other countries,” von der Leyen said in an interview with Germany’s Funke media group.
Additional information Dimitri O’Donnell
[ad_2]