[Sport] Up to 40 large vaccination centres to be introduced across the State - HSE chief says

[rlex]

 

 

Up to 40 big vaccination centres will be put in place across the State to administer Covid-19 vaccines, according to Health Service Executive chief Paul Reid.

He said some of these facilities could have 40 to 50 lanes, or places, for people to be vaccinated while others may have 10 to 20 such bays. Significant progress had been made concerning deployment of such new centres across the country and the workforce that would be required, he added.

Mr Reid said such new facilities are being worked on in parallel with the immediate plan for administering the vaccine to several hundred thousand people over the age of 70, which will include the establishment of three GP-led centres in Dublin, Cork and Galway.

However, the HSE chief executive promised that older people who are immobile at home – and who could not get to proposed vaccination centres – “will not be left behind”. He said transport could be arranged using local authorities or the Defence Forces while the HSE would also consider how vaccines could be brought to the homes of people concerned.

Operational plans to vaccinate 483,000 people over the age of 70 across the State had to be changed last week after the Government, on expert advice , decided to use the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines rather than the AstraZeneca shot as had been envisaged originally.

However, Mr Reid told RTÉ’s This Week programme on Sunday that this would not lead to significant delays in carrying out the programme. He said people over 70 will receive their first vaccination by mid-April and their second by mid-May. He said it had been planned that originally the first doses would have been provided to those over 70 by the end of March.

He said the revised plan to administer the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to older people would commence on Monday, February 15th, starting with those aged over 85.

Mr Reid said the majority of GPs would give the vaccines to patients in the over 70 cohort in their own practice. As part of the new system for administering the vaccines to people over that age a number of large scale vaccination clinics are to be established in Dublin, Cork and Galway.

The first of these clinics will be set up at Dublin City University (DCU) where patients attached to 121 practices across the capital will receive the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

Details of the new plan have been worked out following talks between the HSE and the Irish Medical Organisation.

Date of the first deliveries
However, under the new plan which was finalised on Friday night between the Department of Health/HSE and the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) most patients over the age of 70 will still receive the vaccine from their own family-doctor practice.