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The first delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine to Ireland will be given to medical staff and some older patients in four acute care hospitals from Wednesday – almost two weeks before its rollout to vulnerable residents of nursing homes.
The arrival in the country yesterday of 9,750 doses of Pfizer BioNTech vaccine was called “capital” by the head of the Health Service Executive (HSE), Paul Reid.
The first inoculation is expected to take place at St James’s Hospital in Dublin on December 30, followed the same day by vaccinations at Beaumont Hospital, University Hospital Galway and University Hospital Cork. The Sunday Independent understands that the vaccine will initially be offered to health workers and a number of elderly patients at the hospital.
It will be expanded to a small number of nursing homes on Jan.4 before rolling out to 583 residential care facilities starting Jan.11.
A draft HSE retirement home vaccination plan, obtained by the Sunday Independent, reveals that more than 50 teams will be deployed in 583 retirement homes to deploy the Covid-19 vaccine to more than 70,000 employees and residents. It aims to complete the massive logistics operation in six weeks, with 30,000 nursing home residents vaccinated by the end of February.
The HSE has calculated that each vaccination will take 12 minutes and expects each vaccinator to perform approximately 35 vaccinations per day. Each team will have a minimum of two, three, or four vaccinators, an administrator and an “observational clinician” to monitor the resident or staff member for 15 minutes after vaccination for adverse reactions.
Ireland’s inaugural shipment has been delivered to the HSE’s national cold chain supply storage facility in Citywest pending distribution. The vaccine was hailed as a “massive achievement” yesterday by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, while Pfizer Healthcare Ireland Country Director described it as a “once in a lifetime” and “possibly the greatest” event. breakthrough we have had in 100 years of medicine ”.
In an interview with the newspaper, the head of Pfizer Ireland said yesterday’s shipment was the first of what will be a weekly vaccine delivery. The next batch of around 30,000 doses could arrive as early as tomorrow or Tuesday, followed by weekly deliveries thereafter.
“Indeed, we should have 40,000 doses by the end of December. Then there will be another send this week and another the week of January 4, another January 11 and so on. We will be receiving weekly shipments and the volumes are only committed much closer to the shipping days. “
Although Mr Reid said he could not confirm the expected volumes, it is understood that the HSE expects at least 30,000 doses to be included in each weekly drop by early February, which will bring Ireland’s vaccine supply to a minimum of 150,000 by the end of the month.
Dr Colm Henry, the HSE’s national clinical advisor, has confirmed that the planned rollout of the vaccine to nursing homes will begin Jan.4 before expanding to all nursing homes from Jan.11.
A retirement home owner asked why the population most vulnerable to the virus was being asked to wait until January 11 to get vaccinated.
The owner of the nursing home, who asked not to be named, asked, “Why is the HSE waiting until January 11 to start vaccinating residents of nursing homes? We are in a third wave of viruses. Covid-19 is all around me and it will only get worse. It will be a long wait of two weeks before the vaccine begins to roll out. “
However, Mr Henry said the deployment of the “two-step vaccine” to residents and healthcare workers in nursing homes is “a significant logistical challenge.” “Confirmed deliveries for this new vaccine throughout January and February will be directed to this medium starting the week of January 4 and will transition to full deployment the week of January 11,” he said.
He hailed the arrival of the vaccine yesterday as “a milestone in the history of this pandemic,” but warned people will have to continue with public health measures. He said: “It gives us hope at the end of a difficult year and during a particularly unique Christmas period. But this is not the end. The vaccine complements rather than replaces the public health response to Covid-19. “
While it now seems likely that we are entering a third wave, it is more important than ever that we not be distracted from the key step that we know how to break the chain of transmission of the virus, protect vulnerable people and avoid our own healthcare. health. system overwhelmed. “
As the number of Covid-19 cases climbed to 1,296 yesterday, Dr Una Fallon, director of public health in the Midlands, warned that the third wave of coronavirus could impact the vaccine rollout and asked the public to “stand firm”.
“We appeal to the public. We want to crack with the vaccination program. We want this to be as fast and efficient as possible. There will be a lot of energy in communicating with people, in reassuring people. We want to focus on that and not focus on stopping the spread. We really, really need people’s cooperation to stop the spread now. We are on the last leg of the journey. If people could just stay the course. It’s been a really tough year for everyone, but the end is in sight.
In an interview with the Sunday Independent yesterday, Mr Reid described the vaccine, developed by Pfizer with German company BioNTech, as “possibly the biggest breakthrough we have had in 100 years in medicine.” He said, “This is really so important. When you think about how quickly this happened, I mean you have to put it down to the brilliant scientists who worked on it, the scientists at BioNTech and the scientists at Pfizer who managed to condense a typical timeline. going up to 12 years to develop a vaccine in 10 months. “
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