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Updated 1 hour ago
DEPLOYMENT OF the AstraZeneca vaccine resumes today in Ireland after a precautionary break during the week.
AstraZeneca’s resumption follows a decision by the National Public Health Emergencies Team (NPHET) last night after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gave the green light to the vaccine, paving the way for its return.
AstraZeneca stopped in Ireland as a precaution last weekend after a small number of blood clotting events were reported internationally in people who had received the vaccine.
The EMA reviewed the vaccine and concluded that it is safe and effective.
EMA Director Emer Cooke said the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks.
However, the EMA “cannot definitively rule out a link between these cases and the vaccine,” and its safety committee has decided to point out possible rare conditions by including details in the vaccine brochures.
“The scientific conclusions adopted today provide member states with the information they need to make an informed decision about the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in their vaccination campaigns.”
The European Commission has said that AstraZeneca could face export bans to countries outside the EU if it does not speed up delivery of agreed doses.
President Ursula von der Leyen said the commission has the option of banning planned exports.
“This is a message for AstraZeneca: it does its part of the deal to Europe before it starts delivering to other countries,” said Von der Leyen.
Speaking to the German media group Funke, Von der Leyen said that the contract between the EU and AstraZeneca sets out the amount of vaccines the EU receives from the company’s plants within the EU and in the UK, but that “no We got nothing from the British while we gave them the vaccines. “
The commission has sent a “formal reminder” to AstraZeneca, it said.
With the resumption of AstraZeneca in Ireland, the HSE is advising people in the current high-risk cohort who are invited to a vaccination appointment to attend and receive the vaccine as soon as it is offered, unless they have a disease acute with a disease. fever or have received Covid-19 or another vaccine in the last four to two weeks, respectively.
Professor Karina Butler, of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, said that “the safety of vaccines is paramount” and “the public should be reassured by rapid and thorough investigations of a very small number of serious but very rare adverse events.”
“Because Covid-19 can be so serious and is so widespread, the EMA found that the benefits of this vaccine outweigh the risks of these very rare events,” Butler said.
“The public should be reassured by the fact that more than 20 million doses of this vaccine have been administered in the EEA and the UK, providing protection to those who have received it,” he said.
“We see that the rate of infections and hospitalizations begins to decrease among those vaccinated. The best vaccine anyone can get is the one they can get the earliest. “
As of Tuesday, 463,500 first doses have been administered in Ireland and 168,859 second doses.
Most of these, more than 483,000, have been doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.
19,900 Moderna and 129,000 AstraZeneca vaccines have been administered.
HSE CEO Paul Reid has said 3,700 people over the age of 75 will receive a vaccine at the Helix over the weekend.
“This morning, by restarting the AstraZeneca vaccine, our plan to protect some of the most vulnerable also continues,” Reid said.
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“Today and tomorrow, 3,700 patients over 75 years of age, patients of GPs, will first receive [or] second doses at the Helix vaccination center, ”he said.
In hospitals, there are 328 Covid-19 patients, including 83 in the ICU at 11am this morning.
27 people with a confirmed case were admitted to the hospital in the last 24 hours and 34 were discharged.
Additional information from the Press Association
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