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Sam Boal

National Ambulance Service to increase number of fleets for vaccination of housebound over 70s

Everyone in this cohort will be contacted over the next week by the HSE.

THE NATIONAL AMBULANCE Service is to increase the number of fleets that are travelling to the homes of those aged over 70 to vaccinate them if they are housebound.

Around 1,000 people in this cohort are still waiting to receive their first vaccine dose.

The HSE has said it has taken on board feedback from people in this cohort and their families and will be contacting them over the next week. It is expected this entire group will have their first dose in four weeks’ time. 

Speaking at a HSE briefing earlier today, Damien McCallion, HSE National Director Covid, said there are geographic limitations for crews and they can only administer a certain number in a given week.

“We are conscious it’s a group that are very limited, they can’t move so clearly we need to go to them. So we’ve taken a couple of steps based on feedback we’ve had from people,” he said.

One is that we’re calling all of those people this week, a team has been put together to make contact, just to confirm their status. What we have found at times is maybe peoples’ status has changed; they could have been vaccinated by their GP, they could have been admitted to hospital, they could have gone into some sort of residential care facility, either for transitional care or long-term care.

“So there’s a need to just go through all of the referrals that we’ve had from general practice. It’s a manual process, so we do that weekly in terms of assessing the numbers.”

He said everyone in this cohort will hear from the HSE’s customer service teams.

The National Ambulance Service will also increase the number of fleets available to do vaccination with the aim of completing this group within three to four weeks. McCallion said some of those who are housebound are now due their second dose of the vaccine so this has to be worked into the overall schedule.

“It is a complex area because of the geographical and other considerations and the nature of the patients but, one, we just want to give people assurance they’re not going to get missed – I think that’s really important for that group – and, two, is try and decrease the time to conclude those given that we will conclude the over 70s substantially this week,” he said.

“We’ve got a small percentage to be completed next week for the first dose.”

In the Dáil earlier, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said he can understand how frustrated people must be, not knowing the date of their vaccine.

“They get worried that they will be forgotten entirely, but they won’t be forgotten – they will get their vaccine,” he said. 

Varadkar said there are other options to explore if the National Ambulance Service is unable to provide the resources needed as well as operating as an ambulance service. Pop-up centres, local GPs or pharmacists could play a role, he said.

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    Mute 8-Bit-Relic
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    Jun 5th 2020, 8:49 AM

    Gosh, close them and restart them once they are done… they were responsible for 153 of the cases last week. If that’s one of the main things preventing us from reopening get it done.

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    Mute Aidan O' Neill
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    Jun 5th 2020, 8:54 AM

    Absolute cop out answer by Harris also. He should be getting briefed on the situation and informing the House.

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    Mute frank_1916
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    Jun 5th 2020, 8:51 AM

    whoever owns the meat plants should know who’s working there and also where they live

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    Mute Aidan O' Neill
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    Jun 5th 2020, 8:53 AM

    @frank_1916: meat industry has a lot of Government connections, no sign of inspections or shut down. We’ve been averaging what 50ish a day for the last two weeks? So 100 per week in meat factories means about 2 out of every 7 cases is from one now. With lack of contact tracing this is clearly a significant factor for why the numbers aren’t lower.

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    Mute Eugene Comaskey
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    Jun 5th 2020, 9:38 AM

    @frank_1916: Meath Factory Owners are just that , they are not “keepers” , they cannot follow the workers home and see what they do and where they go . Isn’t the problem with the HSE and Dept of Ag, who have Dept Vets in there. Just like the Nursing Homes, HSE not really doing their job.

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    Mute John Mulligan
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    Jun 5th 2020, 10:04 AM

    @frank_1916: anecdotally, the problem isn’t in the meat plants per se, it’s not possible for employers to police behaviour once people clock off and go home. It appears that correct precautions are in place in the plants, but the employers have no power outside of the workplace to ensure social distancing etc.

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    Mute Cormac
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    Jun 5th 2020, 11:36 AM

    @Eugene Comaskey: the vets are responsible for checking the animals for diseases. They have no responsibility towards the factory employees. It is either the HSA or the HSE that should be taking charge

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    Mute Sharp Elsi Mate
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    Jun 5th 2020, 9:48 AM

    The vast majority of these workers come from a particular community (in our local plants anyway) so contact tracing you would think would be a bit easier. I also think they have a mindset of even if I am bit under the weather I am going to work anyway.

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    Mute Mary Walshe
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    Jun 5th 2020, 1:22 PM

    @Sharp Elsi Mate:
    Probably because they cannot afford not to go to work, I’d say!

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    Mute Sharp Elsi Mate
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    Jun 5th 2020, 2:24 PM

    @Mary Walshe: Yes sadly most likely but is the system not supposed to allow you to get the PUP if you cannot go to work?

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    Mute Isabel Oliveira
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    Jun 5th 2020, 9:34 AM

    All workers contacts ( colleagues and families ) should be traced . Simply no excuse. 70%?is not good enough.

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    Mute George
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    Jun 5th 2020, 10:03 AM

    Big issue is Harris & HSE not using these sites to perfect their tracing procedures. We will have clusters and they will need immediate action. Country cannot shut down again

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    Mute Michael Mcloughlin
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    Jun 5th 2020, 11:04 AM

    Close them like they have the schools and shops and dont reopen them until all the workers comply with the testing .
    I know in the Midlands some of the partners of the people working in the meat Factorys are working in Nursing homes and working as care assistants so it needs to be sorted

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    Mute DK
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    Jun 5th 2020, 9:09 AM

    27 hospitalised out of 1,048 cases is less than 2.6 percent. I think this gives a good rough guide on serious cases rate for adults in 18 – 50 age range. Also no mention of any deaths but they haven’t said there hasn’t been any either so can’t assume that’s the case.

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    Mute Sean Reddin
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    Jun 5th 2020, 10:34 AM

    People / workers are secondary once there is money to be made even in a pandemic unfortunately.

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    Mute Vladimir Macro
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    Jun 5th 2020, 12:02 PM

    1800 peolpe now trained to work in contact monitoring.

    What are they doing?

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    Mute MickN
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    Jun 5th 2020, 12:23 PM

    Has anyone asked who gave the ok for the planeloads of Brazilians than flew in during the lockdown to go straight to work in the meat factories…?
    No….?
    Didn’t think so…

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    Mute Dolores English
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    Jun 5th 2020, 1:56 PM

    Shut the meat factories down, engage with the employees and help them instead of talking about these workers as if they didn’t matter

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