HSE drafting in army personnel to administer vaccine amid capacity concerns

A resident of Maypark House nursing home in Waterford receives his vaccination

The HSE is in talks with the Defence Forces about drafting in army personnel to administer Covid-19 vaccine and alleviate mounting concerns over capacity issues.

News of the discussions comes as it has emerged the European Medicines Agency expects drug maker AstraZeneca to apply for approval of its Covid-19 vaccine next week with approval hopefully granted by the end of the month. 

At present given capacity issues, the HSE plans to deliver only 40,000 shots of vaccine per week through January and February. 

As each person need two shots this means the national roll-out would last well into 2022 at current levels.

It is understood army medics could be trained to give the vaccine - earlier this week, the British government said up to 5,000 military personnel will be involved with different stages of the immunisation roll-out there.

Talks are also understood to be on-going with large sporting sites as possible locations for mass vaccine delivery. 

The HSE has previously used Pairc Ui Chaoimh as a Covid-19 testing centre.

Senior health officials insist they can only plan ahead based on the current number of vaccines delivered to Ireland, and they are not expected to release further predictions until the supply issues are confirmed.

So far they have only confirmed 15,314 doses given, including 890 staff in the Limerick University Hospital Group and 6,176 across the South/ South West Hospital Group.

The chair of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee, Professor Karina Butler has described as “encouraging” news that approval of the AstraZeneca could be in place by the end of the month.

“It would be very good news” she told RTÉ radio’s News at One. The “more forgiving” aspect of the AstraZeneca vaccine would make it ideal for community roll-out of the vaccine through pharmacists and GPs.

The AstraZeneca vaccine does not have the same stringent requirements as the Pfizer vaccine. 

It is not as time sensitive, she explained. The Pfizer vaccine has to be administered within a limited time.

Ireland would stand to get a large tranche of the vaccine which would enable the vaccination programme to extend to “more people very quickly” she added.

The European Commission indicated earlier that it will add up to 300m extra vaccine doses to its order with Pfizer/BioNTech which will eventually mean extra vaccines for Ireland after March.

The renewed focus on this particular vaccine comes as a study carried out by Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch appears to indicate the vaccine will be effective against new strains identified in the UK and in South Africa.

Ireland will get a pro-rata share of this, but the HSE said on Thursday that delivery schedules and numbers are not yet known.

The medicines watchdog has received a “small number” of reports about suspected adverse reactions to the Pfizer/BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine currently being rolled out across the country.

But to date just a “small number” of people have reported side effects or adverse reactions to the new vaccine, according to the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA), which regulates and approves medicines and health products for use in Ireland.

A spokesperson said: “The HPRA has received a small number of reports of suspected adverse reactions (side effects) associated with use of the BioNtech Comirnaty Covid-19 vaccine. 

"These reports have been consistent with the known safety profile of the vaccine, including headache, fever, fatigue, rash and injection site reactions.

“All reports received by the HPRA are continuously reviewed. The benefits of the vaccine continue to outweigh any known side effects, which are mostly mild to moderate in nature.” 

The regulator added that information on the vaccine is available from the HPRA and European Medicines Agency website.