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TODAY, THE DETAILS of the government’s National Covid-19 Vaccination Programme were announced.
With the first vaccines set to be available soon – as early as before the end of this year according to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly – the strategy delves into the logistics and planning that will be required for large swathes of the country to be innoculated against Covid-19.
The plan also includes details on where people will be vaccinated, the process of arranging an appointment to get a vaccine and the systems that will be needed to monitor its rollout.
The plan says: “The objective of the vaccination programme is, in the first instance, to reduce mortality anod morbidity as a consequence of Covid-19.
In addition, successful deployment of safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine(s) will be a more sustainable long-term public health measure, over time allowing society to re-open more fully, our communities to reconnect in the ways we used to take for granted and for our economy to resume a positive growth trajectory.
So what’s in it? Here’s what you need to know.
Last week, the government published details of who’ll be allocated the vaccine first.
The focus at the start of the vaccination programme will be on adults over the age of 65 who are residents of long-term care facilities and frontline healthcare workers in direct patient contact roles, including vaccinators.
Those aged 70 and older will be next, starting with over 85s.
There’ll be three phases of rollout of the vaccines.
The initial rollout phase will see limited doses available. This will begin late this year or early next year.
Minister Donnelly said today: “If the European Medicines Agency meet on the 21st of December and if they conclude on a positive on the Pfizer vaccine, it would likely be several more days, potentially the 23rd of December, before the formal authorisation would be given by the EMA.
“It would then take a number of days, potentially up to a week for initial vaccination here. But it is important to stress that this would be an initial delivery, it would at a very low volume. We’re not looking at widespread vaccination but it would be very encouraging if it did happen to even see the programme of vaccination commence before the end of the year.”
Once a larger number of doses become available, the mass ramp-up phase will begin with larger cohorts of people receiving the vaccine.
It is not yet known when this phase could begin, and depends on the “vaccine delivery schedule”, according to the plan. It’s likely this may not happen until the second quarter of 2021 at the earliest.
The last phase is called open access, where the remaining people who’ve yet to receive the vaccine are then eligible.
There are a variety of locations where a person may receive the vaccine, including mass vaccination centres that are set to be created around the country.
A section of the plan delves into managing the supply, storage and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.
The end-to-end supply chain plan will start with supply from manufacturers, through to central storage, the preparation for distribution, delivery logistics and, finally, to the vaccination location.
The plan says: “Initially, Covid-19 community vaccination teams will be deployed to administer vaccines to the residents and staff of Long-Term Care Facilities. To date, we have identified a number of large scale healthcare sites that will be used as hubs for mobile vaccination teams to collect vaccines prior to vaccinating in Long-Term Care Facilities.”
During the initial rollout phase, the vaccine will be administered in long-term care facilities and large scale healthcare sites.
Once we reach the mass ramp-up phase – when large numbers will begin to receive a vaccine – vaccination will also be done in mass vaccination centres, as well as GPs and pharmacies.
Examples of vaccination administration locations include acute hospitals such as Tallaght Hospital, St James’s and Beaumont (all Dublin), as well as Mayo General Hospital, Cavan General Hospital, Cork University Hospital and University Hospital Galway.
Vaccines will also be administered in community nursing units around the country.
Examples of the sites for mass vaccination centres are Citywest and the National Exhibition Centre in Cloghran.
Colleges have also been mooted as a location for mass vaccination centres.
Chair of the high-level vaccine task force Professor Brian MacCraith said today he has had discussions with a number of third-level institutions about using their campuses to develop mass vaccination centres, and that the HSE were “working on that” idea.
“I’ve spoken with the presidents of NUI Galway, Waterford IT, University of Limerick, and UCC in the past number of days, and all have expressed great support for the concept of actually being able to assist in the development of mass vaccination centres.”
The plan adds: “These centres will be located regionally and designed to cater for large numbers of recipients in an efficient and timely manner. Discussions are underway with the relevant authorities to ensure that a geographical distribution of such mass vaccination centres is provided.”
As explained above, a prioritisation list for who gets the vaccine will mean people get it at different times.
For example, people aged 65-69 are listed as the fifth cohort for who’ll receive the vaccine.
When it is your turn, you will be invited to register, provide some medical and personal details and consent to vaccination. People will be offered scheduled appointments to attend a named location for vaccination.
On the day of the appointment, pre-registered details will be confirmed on arrival.
When the person goes in to get their vaccination jab, the person administering the vaccine will confirm their details, complete informed consent and record their own details as well as batch details and a time/date stamp.
The vaccinator will then prepare the dose and administer the vaccine.
After this the patient will be asked to wait for 15 minutes to monitor for any immediate adverse reactions. Trained clinical staff will need to be on hand to observe the patients.
Aftercare will involve follow-up reminders to ensure people return for their second dose.
The strategy states the goal is to “provide a consistent process with a common data and technology platform, across all clinical settings in which the vaccine is administered”.
If there are any suspected side effects in the days or weeks afterwards, the recipient will be able to report this on a portal on the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) website and through their GP.
All vaccinators will be qualified and registered healthcare professionals.
Vaccinators may include:
As more doses of vaccines becomes available during 2021, the government noted in its plans today that there will be a need to expand the pool of skilled workforce to administer vaccines and to deliver the programme.
Currently, a number of options are being explored to support the scaling up of the workforce for the programme and discussions will be taking place with respective staff groups and bodies over the coming weeks, the plan outlines.
The government is considering actions being taken by other jurisdictions, such as the licensing of recently retired health professionals or maintaining registration in the case of others.
The plan noted that GPs and pharmacists can and have successfully delivered significant numbers of flu vaccines. Subject to agreement, they will be able to offer enhanced capacity for the programme.
Pharmacists, however, may need to be specifically licensed for Covid-19 vaccinations.
The vaccination programme will also require significant increases in the number of administrative and support staff. In this regard, there may be opportunities to leverage the broader public service to achieve this.
All staff working in the Covid-19 vaccination programme will receive training relevant to their role in the team and service.
Training programmes will be delivered online, and where required, in person.
Along with the specialist clinical training required for vaccinator staff, induction and orientation training will be given to all staff working in vaccination centres and as part of Covid-19 community vaccination teams.
This will include, but is not limited to, training in infection prevention control and in relation to the technology solutions which support the vaccination process.
Standard operating procedures will be developed for the vaccination centres and teams. These procedures will outline all required processes to support the vaccination pathway.
A new IT system is at the heart of the plan for the rollout of vaccines in Ireland.
Ireland’s healthcare IT systems don’t have the right functions needed to cope with the scale of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, which means a system must be created from scratch and integrated with the HSE’s systems.
IBM and software giant Salesforce have been tasked with creating the system.
It will allow for the planning and scheduling of vaccines and will monitor the success and effectiveness of the programme.
The National Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Strategy, published today, says:
A functionally rich and proven solution for the proposed vaccination programme must be sourced, purchased, implemented and integrated into the HSE ICT infrastructure before the end of the year.
“It’s an off the shelf CRM [Customer relationship management] system… We widely expect the IT system will be available,” HSE CEO Paul Reid said at a press conference this afternoon, adding that if it wasn’t ready in time for the rollout of the vaccine, they have a backup plan.
Across the IT infrastructure, it will track important elements related to pre-vaccination and vaccine administration.
As regards data processing, the HSE is liasing with the Data Protection Commissioner on the matter. How the system will impact on personal data, and an individual’s privacy and confidentiality will be the subject of a Data Protection Impact Assessment.
An Individual Health Identifier (IHI) is a number that identifies each person within the public and private health sector in Ireland, a unique number that is different to a PPSN.
They were first proposed by government in 2015, with patient safety cited as a key advantage of an IHI. Although planning for IHIs have been in the works for some years no, they haven’t been formally rolled out as of yet.
“Being able to uniquely identify each user will improve patient safety by reducing the number of adverse events that may happen, such as giving the patient incorrect medication or vaccinations or admitting the wrong person for surgery,” HIQA said, in its guidance on IHIs.
The commenced order for IHIs was signed in 2017, although work on implementing them across national healthcare systems has not yet been completed.
As part of the government’s vaccination implementation plan, the first step is enabling public registration and facilitating the booking of an appointment to receive the vaccination.
“Utilisation of the IHI is critically important as it will ensure that each person is uniquely identified for full traceability of the individual,” the plan states.
The identifying patient number would allow electronic recording of every individual vaccination. No medical information is stored on the health identifier record but is instead used by health service providers when they are communicating on your behalf.
“Being able to uniquely identify each user will improve patient safety by reducing the number of adverse events that may happen, such as giving the patient incorrect medication or vaccinations or admitting the wrong person for surgery,” according to Hiqa.
Under the Health Identifiers Act 2014, IHIs are considered to be personal data and are protected as such.
Serving as a patient identifier number, the IHI will be used in conjunction with the new vaccination IT system.
The requirements for GPs and pharmacies in this regard have not yet been defined. The report adds that the national solution will have to ensure that systems from GPs and pharmacies can be integrated as part of the overall plans.
A HSE spokesperson added: “People will, when registering for the vaccine, be provided with an Individual Health Identifier (IHI), a Data Protection Impact Assessment is being developed by the HSE. The HSE has and will continue to engage with the DPC to seek their guidance and advice to ensure we comply fully with the regulations.”
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) today brought forward its possible approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine by a week to 21 December.
Announcing the vaccine strategy this afternoon, Minister Donnelly said vaccines will begin to be administered in Ireland within a week of this approval, opening the possibility of the process getting underway before the end of the year.
Donnelly stressed that this is conditional on the EMA validating the vaccine.
Vaccine taskforce chief, Prof Brian MacCraith, said following the approval it is expected to take 7-10 days for the first doses of Ireland’s allocated 2.2 million Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines to be delivered. However, the delivery schedule has yet to be finalised.
“We can’t be explicit at this stage. I suppose, it appears that it could happen before the end of the year,” Prof MacCraith said.
The EMA is set to make its recommendation on the Moderna vaccine on 12 January and delivery is expected within 10 days of the decision. Ireland has been allocated 880,000 doses of the American company’s jab.
The Astrazeneca vaccine is another promising candidate and is expected to be available in January 2021 at the very earliest. Ireland has around 3.3 million doses of this vaccine ordered.
Ireland also has 2.475 million doses of a vaccine manufactured by Curevac ordered, with its earliest approval date in February 2021.
Another 5.5 million vaccines have been ordered of those in development by Sanofi/GSK and Janssen, but these aren’t expected to be available until at least the middle of next year.
As it stands, the first vaccine to be administered in Ireland is almost certainly set to be the one developed by Pfizer/BioNTech.
A key part of the strategy centres on clear, transparent communication with the public around the vaccine rollout, its efficacy and any concerns that are raised.
The communications strategy will have two main phases.
The plan says: “The first is preparing for the vaccine, talking to the safety and regulatory processes that are taking place in Ireland, Europe and across the world, engaging with people who have genuine hesitancies around the vaccine, communicating the Government Plan from acquisition to prioritisation to distribution and talking to the results of the clinical trials when they are available.
The second phase will focus on the execution of the vaccine – national and local communication from medics encouraging the public to get the vaccine, informing who will administer it and where, identifying people of trust to act as ambassadors for the vaccine.
As part of the approach to building confidence, public health doctors will address misinformation which appears on social media and across the dark web, pointing people to trusted sources of information including gov.ie and hse.ie.
This first phase has already begun. For example, deputy chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn yesterday encouraged people who are vaccine hesistant to stay informed using appropriate sources and to ask their GP any questions they have about vaccine safety.
At all times the communications plan will aim to have a clear and consistent communication to encourage vaccine uptake.
NPHET will also also monitor vaccine uptake and provide regular updates on this progress.
Amid the positivity of today’s announcement, chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan emphasised that just because vaccines are on the way, it doesn’t mean we can let our guard down.
He said: “We know we’re not through this yet. The virus doesn’t care that we’ve done well recently relative to other countries, it doesn’t care that we’re all tired, or desperate to see family and friends, and it doesn’t care that a vaccine is on the horizon.”
Dr Holohan also said the virus was “no different” in terms of the danger it poses to people who become infected than it was last March.
“The vaccine won’t have a positive effect on the trajectory of this disease for at least months to come,” he warned.
With reporting from Gráinne Ní Aodha, Daragh Brophy, Christina Finn, Michelle Hennessy, Hayley Halpin, Ceimin Burke and Adam Daly
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This is good news
@Fergal O’Hagan: It is good news, but it has fiasco written all over it.
@Fergal O’Hagan: Good news for some but vaccinating children against a virus that has little or no effect in them is just plain wrong.
I honestly can’t believe the government are proposing this. My hope is that by then the virus will be contained to a point where the government don’t feel this is a necessary action.
My children will 100% not be getting this vaccine just for the sake of others. I’m sorry but as a parent I have to draw the line somewhere.
@Jim Smith: funny thing is many people like yourself like to claim measles and mumps is harmless to children also.
The reality is very different and they can be extremely harmful or deadly.
Children have died from covid 19 and creating a herd immunity through vaccination is the safest thing for everyone.
@Jim Smith: According to the data on the chart, children and pregnant women will only get the vaccine if they are referred. In other words, unless the vaccine is essential to their health because of an underlying health condition, then children will not be vaccinated. Most children show few symptoms so they don’t need it.
@Ann Reddin: Thanks so much for sharing that information. It’s good to know that there isn’t a plan in place to vaccinate perfectly healthy children.
The government pushing the children’s flu vaccine was very disturbing. I actually got a call from my GP asking what day I wanted to book my kids in for the nasal vaccine. Needless to say I never asked for this.
@Barry Somers: People like myself? What are you on about? You’re trying to put me in a neat little package as an antivaxxer, conspiracy theorist. It’s getting really boring.
My kids have been vaccinated for illnesses that could potentially harm them. I will not vaccinate them for a virus that causes them little to no harm.
@Jim Smith: so we’re your children vaccinated as babies, have they had booster shots through the years, if parents all had same attitude when measles and polio vaccination started you and your children would not have going up in a country almost free of these crual illnesses, I had a young cousin who died of polio, i had an aunt who spent years in a hospital with TB children still die of measles if not vaccinated or can get very sick everyday here for months we’ve had the fb scientists telling us how schools are spreading it calls to close the schools now the exact same people are shouting “not vaccinating my child so you want cake and eat it
@nelliekel: Sorry to hear about those who died. Illnesses like polio, measles and mumps are very dangerous for children and thankfully we have vaccines. However, there are very important differences here.
1. Covid poses little or no risk to healthy children so a vaccine is not necessary for them.
2. By giving a child a vaccine for an illness like Covid you are disrupting the body’s natural process of developing the immune system to help fight future infections. This is why we don’t give children the flu vaccine every year.
3. (Most importantly)This vaccine hasn’t been fully tested for long term side effects so there’s more risk to them with the vaccine than without it.
Lastly, I never called for schools to close
Will people be able to defer or reject the Vaccine I wonder, I dont plan on getting it until Phase 3 trials are completely finished, who knows if this Vaccine has long term side effects yet…
@Adam J: it’s not mandatory so you can wait or refuse it altogether. Though I wouldn’t go planning a holiday abroad because airlines are already talking about requiring passengers to be vaccinated
@Adam J: make sure you wear your mask, social distance and wash your hands. In fact stay away from the rest of us.
@Paul Furey: what a nonsense statement
@Paul Furey: Come out from under your rock. You do know nurses who deal with elderly patients every year in our hospitals have less than 50% take up of the flu vaccine.
@Declan: What’s nonsense about the statement exaxtly?
@Ger: Well thats something I will worry about if it happens.
@Declan: What a nonsense response.
@Declan: Wrong. This year it is almost 100%
@Paul Furey: why ? Surely the vaccine will keep you safe from those who have not taken it yet ?
@Owen Martin: Some people are legitimately unable to get it, be it because of allergies or severely compromised immune symptoms, so they’d still be relying on others to get the vaccine to keep them safe
@Owen Martin: If you are vaccinated, it will 95% prevent you catching it, and spreading it to others.
@Anon.me:Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine prevents symptomatic cases of the virus, but it’s not clear if the shot keeps the disease from being transmitted, U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff found in a report issued. So we still continued use of public-health measures including masks and social distancing, even among those who have been immunized.
@Anon.me: They don’t bknow yet if it stops you spreading it.
great – I’m at the bottom of the list. I guess it means that I’m not really at risk of getting seriously ill for Covid.
@Giovanni Giusti: but you can perhaps pass it on to older/vulnerable people.
@Giovanni Giusti: bit annoying that i may have to wait until early spring/late summer for vaccine. This year was a bad year and hoped that would be vaccinated early in the year.
@Giovanni Giusti: hopefully as other people are getting vaccinated your chances of catching it keep getting slimmer. I’ve no idea where I will end up on the list as I’ve had covid and I’m not in an at risk category but I just can’t wait for us to be out of it and back to normal
@Giovanni Giusti: mask, social distancing and wash your hands. You will be grand
@John Kinsella: not if the elderly are vaccinated.
@Seán Gordon: Except not all elderly can be vaccinated due to history of allergies etc. Also some patients might not mount sufficient immune response to the vaccine, so they will still be at risk from those who have not been vaccinated.
Good god! Another IT system that’ll most likely end up costing the country millions, again! Or have a ton of bugs that’ll constantly need “paid maintenance work” carried out on it! They couldn’t organise a p-up in a brewery!!
@Michael Phelan: Very Dodgy. More info on people being stored.
@Dave Barrett: GDPR….
@Jim Buckley Barrett: he never heard of it. I hope he doesn’t have a smartphone or is on social media.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: In fairness that never bothered them before…
@Paul Furey: Really. That comment says more about you.
Listening to some of the interviews about this on the radio, the reason for the delay was placed on the development of the IT system to monitor the rollout.
The article says first that it is being created from scratch to be integrated into the HSE system by IBM and Sales force.
Yet a couple of paragraphs later Paul Reid, the HSE chief, says that it is an off the shelf CRM system.
It can hardly be both.
@Garry Coll: good god another wonderful IT system!!!
@Garry Coll: at a guess is the integration of the CRM system into the existing HSE system that needs to be developed
@Jim Buckley Barrett:
Maybe so Jim, but the initial impression that was being circulated was that this was going to be a stand alone system, created from scratch, for the HSE.
Now we are told that it’s an off the shelf system from a global giant.
What access will the supplier or others apart from the HSE, have to information in the system when it’s implemented.
Is the same system being integrated into the IT systems of other countries where the vaccine is being rolled out.
Are we going to be told in a short while that the information in the system will be shared to provide people with a vaccine passport.
Today’s roadshow has been interesting, but seems to have created more questions than answers.
@Garry Coll: This is the HSE if you expect a smooth run out of the vaccine. Kudos. I really admire your optimism their ability to make a balls of things is legendary. We have been listening since March about this vaccine how or when it would be available was sketchy at the time. But we all knew it was coming sometime. So why aren’t they better prepared. They should be ready to roll ASAP. It was the same with Donnelly tonight on 6 news saying it was a great news day for everyone. Yet 1st question about roll out “don’t know” 2nd possibly 3rd maybe. Prevarication as usual. I’ll stick to my mask,hand washing and S.Distancing better chance of that keeping me safe!
What are the proposed dates for each phase?
@Paolo: between January & December in one of the years
@Paolo: they can’t really give dates, too many variables. It will depend on supply, uptake etc.
@Paolo: ah now don’t overwhelm them. We’re lucky to have any sort of plan at all.
I’m high risk due to a degenerative neurological illness. I will not consider taking a vaccine until stage 3 trials have finished and the full data has been published, otherwise I’m making an uninformed choice which I’m not prepared to do. I know doctors who spread false information cos it suits them. Leo is another Dr that deceives and manipulates, I would never trust the hse or the pharma companies. I am not anti vax, I am anti corruption. There is no certainty that the vax will not make my illness worse, so I will wait.
@Tony Ember: I’ve no doubt that your consultant will advise you, as to whether the vaccines are suitable for you, or not.
@Tony Ember: I think Stage 3 is finished.
This is now stage 3.
It’s correct that they have not tested it on every type of condition so there is still an adverse risk for some.
More information and monitoring needed.
In general I don’t think there is much concern but like everything there’s always a risk of adverse reaction even if rare.
The 22,000 in stage 3 will be exceeded in hours of the Rollout and I’d imagine a large amount of data and information will become more available as it proceeds.
PPSN should be used to generate a unique IHI via a one way hash. Revenue and Social Welfare databases should already include virtually all citizens
Will people be able to decide which vaccine they get?
@Michael Flynn: Possibly those who have a history of anaphylaxis may get a choice. But for the moment I don’t imagine so.
@Michael Flynn: i think I heard it said on the news by the head of the HSE Paul Reid, that the type of vaccine you get may depend on your age, health etc.
@Michael Flynn: good question. I was wondering that myself
Oh, great. Only very few places to get the vaccine. For me 70km+ away, and no way to get there. Why can’t GPs administer it like the flu vaccine?
@Jane Alford: the Pfizer one needs to be stored in a special freezer.
@Jane Alford: Calm down Jane, GP’s and Pharmacists are going to be involved in the roll out. Unless you like on a raft in the Atlantic Ocean you’ll be fine.
@Fred the Muss…: G.P’s and pharmacies can’t administer Pfizer vac without proper freezer storage. This I was told today by my G.P they will only be used for the others Oxford or Moderna excuse me if I didnt get names exactly right.
@Fred the Muss…: what part of Jane’s comment gave you the impression that she wasn’t calm?
@Shiney: they do not want the IHI to link to any other personal data.
It’s not everything I need to know, it’s everything you want me to know.
A new IT system must be developed. Anyone else thinking the electronic voting shambles?
@Ross O’Donnell: Almost 12 years ago Ross, just let it go… Let it gooo!
have your say