Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE VACCINE ROLL out must reach every road in Ireland as the next phase is set to begin, Dr Colm Henry has said.
The next phase of the vaccine roll out, the inoculation of people over the age of 85, will begin on Monday. Henry said that he and his team are confident that most of these vaccinations will be concluded by May.
Speaking on RTÉ News at One Henry said that the nursing home vaccination programme is now nearing an end.
He said that his team have been working closely with GPs to determine the next course of action.
“We’ve been working hard with the GP community over the past few weeks to address this priority group number three.
“We want to move beyond the work we’ve done in the residential care facilities, move beyond as we complete the vaccination of frontline health care workers to this older group.
“For a couple of weeks now, to finalize this rollout, we are using the intelligence of the GP community, using the advocacy they have and using the engagement they have with older patients.
“We need to make sure this vaccine reaches up and down every road in Ireland to get the right people,” he said.
When questioned about the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine on older people Henry said that the roll out programme was using the “best evidence” they have at the moment to determine which vaccine to administer.
He explained that they would not be administering the AstraZeneca vaccine to the over 70s but, at present, they would be inoculating this cohort with the mRNA vaccines.
“The mRNA vaccines give an additional protection to older people, for this reason we’re going to attempt to give that vaccine to everybody over 70 years,” he added.
Henry said that the roll out of vaccines to nursing homes settings went beyond “literal interpretation of residential care facilities”
He said that this phase went to “anywhere where there were congregated settings of older people” – this included religious communities.
Henry indicated that it is now emerging that first dose alone is offering some increased protection against the virus with serious illness risks reduced.
He said that there are “positive news” results coming from an Israeli study, which began in December, showing a 60% reduction in hospitalisations after the first dose.
Henry said that he hopes that they will be just weeks or months away from seeing a similar impact in Ireland.
“We’d like to see a situation where this breaks down transmission of the virus but we don’t know that yet.
“That will only emerge through population observation of the impact of the vaccine uptake and correlating that with the number of new cases of Covid-19 and see whether they were in vaccinated people or unvaccinated people,” he explained.
Henry said he hopes to have the next phases, the elderly people in communities, completed by mid-May.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
They’re sick waiting.
And we’re sick paying.
Workers in social housing pay 15% of their wages. But don’t get to own it after 25 years.
Our retail workers can’t afford private landlord prices, workers who buy someone else’s second home/mortgage.
I feel for the people who are gonna be lumbered with some of the ‘ lovely ‘ folk from that complex when they are re housed elsewhere, same thing happened with O’Devaney flats, corpo moved them as far from there as they could, turned parts of bray in to a kip.
@Uncle Montys oaf: No one from O’Devaney moved to Bray.
@Uncle Montys oaf: Can you Tell us about the bad experiences you’ve with some people from Oliver Bond House?
Maybe get a job and stop living off the hardworking people who are paying for your keep
If the residents contributed to a sinking fund after a few months they would have enough in it to begin work.
Rory J Leonard: if SF had a plan it would probably be to build new housing so that these people could be moved while making the Flats more liveable in the interim. Sadly it would not be in scenic Phoenix Park. They would likely choose some empty council land that is not being developed due to politics or NIMBYism. Perhaps in your neighborhood . . . .
Crazy alternative plan, but why not get a job in another county where rents are cheaper!
put MM on trial
i have seen the dire conditions there, outside dog poop etc. i say knock them down and rebuild and rehouse the people in meantime.
@michael macken:
That is exactly what needs to be done, Michael!
If our Taoiseach operated under a similar political system to China, he could Decree that a Section of the many under utilised Phoenix Park’s 1,700 acres, be set aside for the construction of a large number of modern apartment blocks.
Oliver Bond tenants could then be temporarily relocated, whilst their existing homes were given that long overdue make over. This could all be achieved possibly within five years, not fifteen.
And it wouldn’t take long to fill all of those almost-new homes in The Park when all done and dusted!
But this not China! So under our system, how can this particular type of conundrum be solved expeditiously?
Perhaps SF has a masterplan in the works for a solution. We await with bated breath!
@Rory J Leonard: if our Taoiseach operated under a similar system to China the flats would be bulldozed to make way for fancy condos and the residents sent to a labour camp for complaining….!
@michael macken: and whose dogs are popping, whose rubbish is just flung into the grounds, who burnt the pitch and playground? The millions of tourists and visitors to the flats every year?
@Paul Clancy: The part time Taoisach Martin and the policy of FFG are the problem. As for China…A lot of criminal bankers. Developers, who were facilated by members of the above named parties would have deservedly have been put against a wall .
@Rory J Leonard: China can get stuffed for all the ruination it’s done over the past few years.
They moved resident’s from Dolphin House Flat’s while they were being renovated and families that wanted move back got a place. Why not offer same scheme to Oliver Bond resident’s.
@Mick McGuinness: as long as they only give flats to people who work locally.
If you never worked, why should you be housed beside where all the jobs are, while workers in those jobs commute for hours?
have your say