A number of large-scale vaccination clinics are to be established in Dublin, Cork and Galway under new plans for administering the Covid-19 vaccine to those over the age of 70.
Under the new plans 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 (IMO).
Hospital Report
However most patients over the age of 70 will still receive the Covid vaccine from their own family doctor practice.
In a bulletin to its members on Friday night, seen by The Irish Times, the IMO said some 72,000 people over 85 will be first to be vaccinated, the first of 490,000 over 70s around the State. The over 85s are to be vaccinated in three week-long slots, starting on February 15th “during which time the objective is to vaccinate patients over 85 and then continue on with the age schedule”.
‘Buddying up’ system
Patients will all receive two doses of either Pfizer or Moderna. The vast majority of patients will be vaccinated in their own GP practice – some 70 per cent of GP practices will see their patients vaccinated on site – with deliveries through the HSE’s cold chain to all practices with more that 200 over 70s.
Those practices will need to have a registration area, a refrigeration area – which will double as an area for vaccines to be reconstituted – and a vaccination area and an observation area. These will be managed by GPs, admin staff and nurses.
However, for practices with fewer than 200 over 70s – some 400 practices – vaccinations will take place on two pathways. The first will be through GP vaccination clinics, and the second pathway is through a “buddying up” system.
The vaccination clinics in urban centres will be at agreed locations – among the first of these will be in DCU, where 121 practices will come together to run clinics. Booking, registration and payment will happen through GPs own practices – with doctors told “the only change is the venue at which the patient will receive the vaccine”.
The clinics will operate “in the agreed age phases until all these patients are vaccinated and at the 28 day intervals”. They will run at the weekend.
The “buddying up system”, outside urban centres, will also involve practices with fewer than 200 patients over 70, who will be paired with a larger practice in their area. Patients from smaller practices will attend the larger practice, but will be dealt with by their GP and his or her staff.
Indemnity arrangements
In order to facilitate planning, GPs will be asked to identify and register the patients over 70, in each age cohort, and invite them for vaccination at the relevant venue – either their own practice, a vaccine clinic, or a “buddied up” practice.
Once that process is complete, the order of vaccines can be placed and syringes, needles and vaccine cards will be delivered. GPs will have a delivery every two weeks.
According to the IMO, indemnity arrangements will cover GPs and practice nurses. Members were told the hope is that all GPs and practice nurses will be vaccinated prior to the programme beginning – those not vaccinated will be facilitated through acute hospitals.
They will be given the AstraZeneca vaccine – except where they have been given a different vaccine first, in which case the same will be given in a second dose.
Economic costs
Details of the new vaccination plan emerged as Ministers were told last week that the State is is burning through its €5.5 billion in coronavirus contingency funding at a higher rate than anticipated, The Irish Times has learned.
A meeting of the Cabinet’s economic subcommittee, attended by senior Ministers and the Taoiseach this week, heard that the fund – comprising two separate reserves apportioned for at budget time last year – has been tapped earlier than expected, for greater amounts, and is likely to be needed for longer than anticipated.
While the State’s coffers are well stocked and borrowing is cheap, the current and anticipated call on the reserve funds illustrates the massive extent of interventions needed due to the current harsh lockdown, as well as the likely persistence of Level 5 restrictions for the foreseeable future, Government sources said.
Budget 2021 was drawn up based on pessimistic assumptions around a no-deal Brexit and the unavailability of viable coronavirus vaccines – neither of which have come to pass, meaning the economic backdrop is somewhat better than anticipated. However, the enormous impact of the third coronavirus wave is much more onerous than had been planned for.
Baseline secenario
The budgetary “baseline scenario” was that the economy would co-exist with the virus, with phased restrictions ebbing and flowing but no full lockdown. It also assumed the economic costs of further lockdowns would be less severe.
Ministers at the meeting on Thursday also accepted that no firm date can be set down for ending the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, even though the number receiving the payment is lower than at the peak last year. There was uncertainty too about when the wider economy can reopen, although there is growing confidence within Government that construction can reopen relatively early. It was conceded that the most stricken sectors of hospitality, travel, tourism and the arts will remain moribund for some time.
“We can’t allow these sectors to disappear,” said one Minister. “We have to keep them on life support.”
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly confirmed the first batches of the AstraZeneca vaccine will arrive in Ireland this weekend, with 43,000 doses expected over the next week.
“We expected 190,000 doses in total to arrive in February. They will be administered straight away,” Mr Donnelly told RTÉ. Studies have concluded that AstraZeneca is highly effective among people over 70, but Irish authorities have recommended the use of only the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for that upper age cohort because of a lack of data until now on the efficacy of AstraZeneca among older people.
New cases
A total of 1,047 new cases of the virus were reported yesterday and 35 deaths. Some 1,221 people are currently in hospital with virus symptoms, of whom 181 are in ICU units.
Separately, Minister for Education Norma Foley has disclosed her department is planning for a combination of Leaving Certificate examinations and an alternative assessment option, not involving exams. No details have been disclosed of the nature of the assessment option but senior officials in education will now begin bilateral engagement with the relevant bodies.
The Garda will begin issuing €100 fines from next Monday to motorists from Northern Ireland who cross the Border without a reasonable excuse for travelling. The Health Act 1947 has been amended to include those not ordinarily resident in the State as being liable for the fines.
