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The cabinet will today approve a plan to deliver vaccines worth more than 100 million euros throughout the country, including in mass vaccination centers, as the state moves to implement the most important inoculation program since its founding.
Under the plan, the state will launch 14 million doses of at least five different vaccines.
There will be five types of locations where the doses will be administered across the country, including potentially mass vaccination centers at Citywest in West Dublin and the National Show Center in Cloghran, near Dublin Airport.
The details are contained in a new report prepared by a high-level working group chaired by Professor Brian MacCraith, detailing the types of locations that will be used in the different stages of the planned implementation.
The first locations will be hospitals, followed by long-term residential care facilities, which will be served by mobile distribution teams from a nearby hospital.
Then there will be centralized mass vaccination centers, and once broader sections of society are vaccinated, GPs and pharmacies will play a more important role.
The program will build on the existing pool of vaccinators working within the health system, and sources said that a number of options were being advanced on a number of options to expand the workforce for deployment.
Registration
The HSE is also working on a new IT system that will cover registrations, reservations, second reservations and follow-up.
Sources said a “ready-to-use software solution” was being sourced and expected to be ready by the end of the year.
Ireland currently has at least five advance purchase agreements for different vaccines, and if all of these are approved by the European Medicines Agency, at least 14 million doses of vaccines will be available.
Sources have said that the cost of the drugs will be about 112 million euros.
However, even as the government prepares to launch its plan, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the “optimal period” for launching the vaccine would not be until spring.
He also said there could be more restrictions in January.
At today’s cabinet meeting, ministers will also consider the complex storage and distribution requirements of different Covid-19 vaccines.
The key to the Government’s plan will be a communication strategy designed to build confidence in the vaccination program and reassure society about its safety and efficacy. It is hoped that “trusted experts” will be asked to “debunk misinformation” and provide data on vaccines.
Drug regulator
On Monday, Ireland’s drug regulator said there would be “no lowering of the bar” in the approval process.
No regulatory body, here or abroad, would make new vaccines available “without having full confidence that they are safe and work,” said Dr. Lorraine Nolan, executive director of the Medical Devices Regulatory Authority.
“All vaccine applications will be reviewed with the same care and rigor as any other drug. We will be guided by tests and science, “he said Monday at a briefing by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet).
When asked about a new variant of the virus identified in the UK, Deputy Medical Director Dr Ronan Glynn said there was very little information available and it was too early to say if this variant had any effect on the response. immune.
Nphet reported the deaths of two other Covid-19 patients on Monday. This brings the total number of deaths in the pandemic to 2,126.
Another 264 confirmed cases of the disease were also reported, bringing the total number of cases to 76,449 in the Republic.
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