OPERATION VACCINATION
The first doses of a vaccine against the Covid-19 virus to be administered in Sligo will take place in just under three weeks.
The rollout of the vaccine sends out a real signal the virus can be beaten as the number of new cases surged past the 1,000 mark over Christmas week and the country headed into further lockdown from St Stephen’s Day.
Nursing homes will be targeted first in the strategic rollout with Bailey’s Nursing Home in Tubbercurry set to be the first to administer the Pfizer vaccine on January 18th.
It will be followed by Ballymote Community Nursing Unit on the 19 th, Mowlam Nursing Home in Sligo on the 20 th, Nazareth House Nursing Home, Sligo on the 22nd, Summerville Nursing Home, Strandhill on the 26 th, St. John’s Community Hospital on the 27 th and Sonas Nursing Home Ard Na Greine, Sligo on the 29 th.
All residents and staff in nursing homes throughout the country will be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by the end of February.
From January 11, vaccination teams will travel to each of the 583 Hiqa older persons residential care facilities, both public and private, to administer two doses to over 70,000 people over a sixweek period. This includes 29,456 residents and 41,856 staff.
Teams will work five-days a week and it will take three weeks to administer the first dose, and a further three for the second. It is estimated it will take each vaccinator 12 minutes to administer the vaccine with a Pfizerday. After the nursing homes and acute hospitals have been taken care of, the HSE will then roll out its vaccination programme to GPs and pharmacies.
The first shipment of 10,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine arrived in Ireland on Saturday. Another 30,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine are due for delivery next week with 40,000 doses due each week through January and into February.