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Irish cases of a potentially worrisome variant of the coronavirus that originated in Brazil have doubled to six, according to health officials.
Health Service executive officials who attended Dáil’s health committee on Tuesday did not provide further details of the P1 variant of concern.
An improved contact tracing process has been implemented for these cases, with all contacts being tested and contacts of contacts having to self-isolate, according to Lorraine Doherty, director of the Center for Health Protection Surveillance.
There are 15 Irish cases of B351 remaining, another variant of concern that first emerged in South Africa, he said.
Both variants carry a mutation in the spike protein, the part of the virus that allows it to infect a host, called E484K, which helps avoid immunity from past infections.
Officials said antigen tests will be used twice a week in some meat plants, in addition to existing monthly serial tests that use standard PCR technology.
While an antigen test has been validated for use in this setting, Dr. Doherty said the antigen test was resource-intensive, “not fast,” and did not work as well in asymptomatic cases when the prevalence of disease in the community is declining, as it is now. .
The provision of additional medical internship positions during the first wave of the pandemic last year was always understood as “unique,” HSE Clinical Director Colm Henry told the committee.
Last year, 1,100 medical students were offered internship positions, up from the normal number of 734 positions. Nearly 1,000 accepted the offer and began in late May, two weeks before the usual twice-a-year rotation of medical staff.
Responding to calls from TDs for the same number of intern positions to be offered this year, Dr. Henry said that this year, with the number of cases declining and the availability of vaccines, the need for additional interns will not it is the same as in 2020.
HSE CEO Paul Reid said 1.1 million Covid-19 vaccines will be delivered to Ireland in the first three months of the year. This is the fourth time the forecast has been lowered.
Between 15 and 17 changes have been made to the deployment of the vaccine since the beginning of the year, due to changes in the operational plan, deliveries, prioritization of groups and patient sequencing, he said.
Johnson & Johnson vaccine
Acknowledging the “drift” in the expected number of doses to be delivered to Ireland, Mr Reid said that between 1.1 million and 1.2 million vaccines will be delivered by the end of this month or early April, and that 175,000 they will arrive on the last day. of this month.
He said Ireland would receive 600,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in a single shot in the second quarter, assuming it was approved by the European Medicines Agency later this week. However, supplies would be “behind schedule” in the period, and the “smaller numbers” would arrive in April.
An original figure of 1.7 million planned doses forecast in January was based on advance purchase agreements with manufacturers. This fell to a forecast of 1.4 million and then fell back to 1.24 million, he said.
Supply problems have caused “high levels of frustration” for HSE in the first three months of launch, Mr. Reid said.
There should be greater predictability in supply during the second quarter of the year, although there may be “swings and roundabouts” in supply, he added.
On the other hand, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that the Government was “disappointed” with the problems that have arisen in the launch of the Covid-19 vaccine in the first three months of the year, although he insisted that there have been “very good progress” in the protection of the most vulnerable.
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