Vaccine centre moves to Racecourse
THE HSE has moved its Sligo Covid-19 Vaccination Centre from the Knocknarea Arena at IT Sligo to Sligo Racecourse with vaccine clinics at the new location starting yesterday, Wednesday.
In an eight-month period at the Knocknarea Arena there were more than 110,000 vaccines administered.
The institutes sports venue was identified as the perfect location for mass vaccination due to its size, access to parking and its close proximity to Sligo University Hospital.
The vaccination centre at IT Sligo’s Knocknarea Arena serviced a huge region including Sligo, south Donegal, Mayo and Leitrim.
IT Sligo president Dr Brendan McCormack said: “It has been an honour for us to make our Knocknarea Arena freely available for the HSE mass vaccination centre and on behalf of the institute I would like to thank the frontline workers from the HSE, Irish Defence Forces, Gardaí and everyone else involved including our own estates team, in this mammoth task.
“To think 110,000 vaccines have been administrated from this building in just eight short months, is an incredible achievement by the HSE and one the region and nation is proud of.”
On the last clinic in this location, Sligo Vaccination Centre manager Siobhan
McEniff reflected on a very successful rollout with 90% of the eligible population now vaccinated:
She said: “We began vaccinating in the Knocknarea Arena at the end of February and since day one we have received incredible support from the management and staff of IT Sligo. We are very grateful to the Institute for facilitating the Sligo Vaccination Centre in their sports centre. It is an excellent, high tech, accessible venue which enabled our vaccination teams to deliver over 110,000 Covid-19 vaccines to the people of Sligo and neighbouring counties.
“People who are due to get their second dose vaccination and those who are immunocompromised will automatically receive an appointment at the Racecourse Vaccination Centre. We advise people who receive details of a Covid-19 vaccine appointment by text to read their text invitation message carefully and note the new location of the vaccination centre. Anyone who still needs a vaccine can come to a walk-in clinic and there is no change to operations at Carrick-onShannon Vaccination Centre.”
Covid-19 vaccine clinics will commence at Sligo Racecourse this week. There will be walk-in clinics and scheduled appointment clinics running at the new location. The details of the clinics are updated weekly at hse.ie and saolta.ie.