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TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has said the government will have “greater freedom and options” when the first tranche of people are vaccinated but that it could be the summer before there is “a degree of normality returning”.
Martin has outlined the government’s hopes for how the vaccine roll-out will take place over the course of the next six months, cautioning that it could be May or June before mass vaccinations take place.
Some 10,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are expected to be delivered to Ireland over the Christmas period with the first vaccines to be administered here on 30 December.
As part of the sequencing plans, adults over 65 who are residents of long-term care facilities and frontline healthcare workers are first in line.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said it is hoped that residents of nursing homes will have received their two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine by “some time in February”
This prospect has raised the question over whether the government could begin to unwind restrictions when the most vulnerable people are inoculated.
Speaking to journalists, Martin said this would give the government some options.
“The volumes coming through in January and February are relatively low in terms of what would come subsequently, but that’s where we’ll be dealing with nursing home residents and healthcare workers and key workers, that will make a significant difference in itself,” Martin said.
If we can immunise and can protect those most vulnerable, that already begins to give us a greater freedom in terms of policy options and decisions we take.
He added that the restrictions are “continually reviewed” and that the current set of restrictions will be reviewed on 12 January.
The Taoiseach cautioned however that the vaccine roll-out will not mean a return to normality in the first six months of 2021.
“It depends on how we define the new normal. I think the first six months of 2021 will see improvements but we certainly won’t have normality in the first six months as we knew it.
The manufacturing of vaccines will ramp up certainly from March onwards and President von der Leyen would have identified May-June as critical months in terms of high volumes of vaccines coming in. So I think from the summer on I think we’ll see a degree of normality returning. But I can’t be definite about that.
Complacency
Martin said that any return to normality would be “tentative” and he cautioned that recent events in the UK related to the new variant can demonstrate that the situation can change unexpectedly.
He also said some other vaccines could be delivered faster than expected:
Moderna is coming faster now, and AstraZeneca will be here in January as well. So by the end of January we will have three vaccines. So what I’m saying here is conservative, I could also see a scenario in which manufacturing ramps up more quickly and where higher volumes of vaccines gets to member states more quickly and that’s the more hopeful scenario.
He also cautioned that the vaccine roll-out could lead to people becoming complacent about other public health guidelines.
“There is some concern on the public health side that the more we talk about vaccines the less guarded people seem to become in terms of their personal behaviour.”
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Once care home residents and frontline healthcare workers are vaccinated we should not put up with any more restrictions on our freedoms and livelihoods. The vulnerable can continue to isolate until they are vaccinated – surely that makes more sense than all of us doing it and having hundreds of thousands on the PUP
@Newto2016: Most vulnerable people don’t have the ability to lock themselves away from the outside world. In a lot of cases, they live with other people and/or they are cared for by other people. If the virus is widespread in the community, then those people will pick it up and bring it to them. Saying “go isolate until this is over and it’ll be grand” isn’t realistic and it shows a complete lack of understanding.
@Newto2016: Anyone thinking these restrictions will be suddenly lifted is deluded. NEPHET now have too much control over our freedoms and the next thing will be, level 3 until everybody is vaccinated and you won’t be able to fly in or out of the Country without a vaccine.. No entry to concerts, football matches without a vaccine. I’d say every flu season from now on masks will be mandatory and social distancing in place. The Government and media have People so afraid they’ll accept anything from now on
@David Garland: hopefully masks become the norm in winter, they have done a great job with covid and the flu, can’t wait to take the vaccine and no I’m not a sheep.
@Daniel Roche: Each to their own but I won’t be wearing one once the vaccine is out.. Life has to return to normal and masks etc should be personal choice as should any vaccine. From the very start we were told to wear masks to protect the vulnerable, when they’re vaccinated all restrictions should be lifted. End of Story
@Newto2016: you complain about the restrictions on your freedom but suggest that the vulnerable would be locked away, double standards much?
@David Garland: ya each to there own, I rather care about the great people of our country and the greater good,happy Christmas to you.
@David Garland: Aren’t you lucky not to be a vulnerable person, hopefully next time we have a pandemic and you might at that stage be classed as a vulnerable person you’re happy to isolate yourself so people can have their “freedom”.
@Niamh Brady: What are you on about? I said when the vulnerable are vaccinated all restrictions should be lifted.. That’s what should happen..
@Daniel Roche: Where was your mask previous flu seasons. Don’t get on your high horse saying you care about the great People of our Country because you’ll wear a mask every winter from now on. Good Man yourself. Suppose you want a clap for that
Hopefully people follow restrictions and Govt enforce them, so we minimise amount of lockdowns until vunerable vaccinated.
@Eoin McLove: hopefully too, we stay away from numbers like Sweden (70 dead every day).
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That would really slow down roll out
@Eoin McLove: Amazed at how easily some Irish people rolled over and allowed their government to strip them of their rights and freedoms, first for three weeks, now for 15 months. Baaaaaaaa.
@Eoin McLove: They’ve already indicated we’ll be in level 5 until the nursing homes are vaccinated anyway. They’ve not said it directly but the dates marry up. Leo said possibly end of Feb for lifting level 5 and the HSE have said they’ll have the nursing homes vaccinated by the end of Feb.
We’ll see how they handle the remaining vulnerable in society after that I suppose
@Boyd Gray: you’d think if Govt brought in masks faster and enforced restrictions, we’d have avoided some of the lockdowns alright.
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Which country’s approach would you recommend?
@Eoin McLove: That very edgy guy would recommend two countries ; U.S.A & America
@JedBartlett:
We the citizens are the biggest contributers to the health of the vulnerable but for the sake of a bit of turkey and pointless Xmas tat from China the heart ache continues.
@Liam Meade: I presume you spent yesterday alone in your bedroom so?
@Eoin McLove: Why Sweden? They have one of the lower death rates recently of 5.2 per 100,000 in the last 14 days. Higher than here but nowhere near as bad as Czechia, Poland, Italy etc etc. In fact most countries have a higher death rate than Sweden.
@Boyd Gray: ooh we got a free spirit man of the land here,no one will tell him what to do. mman,your are so cool..
@Boyd Gray: what a hero
@Boyd Gray: you’ve been to the Troll school
@Boyd Gray:
What way would you have handled it ?
@Eoin McLove: You really are nothing but a poisonous t*roll hiding behind a fake name.
The goverment has lost the people through sheer mismanagement, theres a reason why the WHO said lockdowns should be used as a last resort, because people get complacent and worn out by them, we’ve just headed into our 3rd lockdown in 9 months, people won’t listen anymore, politicians and NPHET have bottled it, lockdowns arent a solution anymore because people dont abide by them simple as, the more they lockdown in the future the less and less people are going to comply.
Let’s hope so.
Election in September 2021 can follow so we can judge this government’s performance.
Better get more than 10K vaccines and soon!
@J Flood: true. With double shots thats 5,000 people. Not gonna go far….
Look at the graph for Covid deaths since March
Look up the number of Covid ICU admissions since March
Oh, is Mickey retiring?
Well I hope they will include carers at home looking after disabled Children and Adults. After all our Children are mixing with others and health care staff at day service. If carers end up sick it’s going to cost the Country a lot of money to look after the Children and Adults they care for. So M. Martin think on.
Just like he promised Chez
have your say