‘Vaccines bonus’ to deliver care home visits for families
:: ‘Vaccine bonus’ to make life ‘a little bit easier’
NURSING home visits and greater freedoms for fully vaccinated people are being considered as part of a “vaccine bonus”.
It is likely the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) will this week agree to allow nursing home visits as most residents and staff have now been inoculated. It will consider the issue on Thursday, with visits expected to resume a week or 10 days later.
Deputy chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said Nphet would prepare advice for people who have been fully vaccinated in its notes to Government ahead of April 5, when the current Level 5 restrictions will be reviewed.
“I’m hopeful over the next few weeks that we can start to tell people what the bonus from vaccination is and what vaccination means that you can or can’t do,” he told the Irish Independent.
“But equally again, we have to balance that because not everyone in society will be vaccinated, vaccines aren’t 100pc protective.
“The vast majority of nursing homes now have been vaccinated so hopefully there will be a vaccine bonus for people over the next while.
“It won’t be normality, but [it’ll be] something a little bit easier versus the really tough time that people have gone through in the past year.”
NURSING home visits and greater freedoms for fully vaccinated people are being considered as part of a “vaccine bonus”.
It is likely that Nphet will this week agree to allow nursing home visits as the “vast majority” of residents and staff will be vaccinated.
It will consider the issue on Thursday, with visits expected to resume a week or 10 days later.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday said that fully vaccinated people could gather indoors without masks or physical distancing.
Deputy chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said Nphet would also soon reveal the “vaccine bonus” for people who have had all their jabs.
“I’m hopeful over the next few weeks that we can start to tell people what the bonus from vaccination is and what it means, what vaccination means that you can or can’t do,” he told the Irish Independent.
“But equally again, we have to balance that because not everyone in society will be vaccinated, vaccines aren’t 100pc protective.”
He also said there needed to be further data on how the vaccine affected transmissibility, although it is likely that it has a “significant impact”.
Nursing home visits will be looked at “specifically” this week, because even without the vaccine roll-out, community transmission has been falling steadily.
“It’s appropriate even in that context, of looking at the issue of nursing home visitation given the really significant impact this pandemic has had on people living in those settings over the past year,” Dr Glynn said.
“The vast majority of nursing homes now have been vaccinated so hopefully there will be a vaccine bonus for people over the next while.
“It won’t be normality but something a little bit easier versus the really tough time that people have gone through in the past year.”
Meanwhile, around 12,000 people over 80 face a delay in getting their Covid-19 vaccine in the coming weeks due to a shortage of Moderna jabs, it has emerged.
Dr Ken Egan, a Mayo GP said he had been contacted by other family doctors who were concerned about the disappointment and worry among the 80- to 85-year age group who fear they will lose out.
Last week, the HSE told GPs there will be a Moderna vaccine shortage due to delivery changes, and it would lead to a 15pc drop in supply for this age group in the coming weeks.
But the HSE said it hoped the target to vaccinate all over-70s by mid-May would still be met.
Dr Egan, a former president of the Irish Medical Organisation, said: “There needs to be an appreciation of the disappointment and worry for this age group when it is not clear who will now be getting vaccinated this week.”
There are an estimated 80,000 people aged 80 to 85 eligible but until the shortage is sorted out, the age profile should be changed to 83 to 85, he suggested.
There was confusion yesterday among people with underlying conditions about when they will be contacted for vaccination and what group they fit into on the priority list. The HSE said the estimated 160,000 people aged 16 to 69 who have underlying conditions, leaving them at ‘high risk’ if they are infected with Covid-19, were being identified by their hospital consultants and other means.
There is no point in these patients contacting their hospital doctor, nurse or GP at this point because they are still drawing up lists of people who are eligible for this Group 4 in the vaccination priority list.
“Given the complexity of the task, we expect it will take some weeks to contact and vaccinate everyone,” a spokeswoman said.
Once the identification is complete, they will be contacted individually.
The first members of this group – around 10,000 people with neurological and intellectual disability conditions – are being vaccinated in disability centres.
Many people with the same illness as those in Group 4 will have less severe disease and are regarded as ‘high risk’ rather than ‘very high risk’ so will be in Group 5. They are aged 65 to 69, while others will be in Group 7.
A spokeswoman said: “Take, as an example, people with a diagnosis of chronic lung disease. Only some people with chronic lung disease are at very high risk and therefore in Group 4.
“Many other people with chronic lung disease are at high risk – rather than very high risk – and these people are therefore either in Group 5orGroup7.”
Meanwhile, Dr Colm Henry, chief clinical officer in the HSE, has told GPs that a “central logistics hub” had been set up to oversee orders and deliveries to their practices for the over-70s.