Serious doubts over Covid-19 vaccine programme as AstraZeneca ruled out for over 70s

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has now asked the HSE to come up with a new plan, which could involve groups of GPs coming together in one hub to give vaccines to as many people as possible at once.

Serious questions have been raised around the Covid-19 vaccination programme after the 'game-changer' AstraZeneca vaccine was ruled out for those over 70.

The Government has decided to only vaccinate those in the vulnerable over-70s group with Pfizer BioNTech or Moderna vaccines after being advised that AstraZeneca could be less effective in older people.

However, those further down the list including healthcare workers who are not in direct patient contact and those between the ages of 65 and 69 may now be vaccinated sooner than expected using the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin admitted the move away from using AstraZeneca on older people, which is easier to store and administer, will pose challenges.

"That will mean change in terms of the operation of the plan and will be a significant logistical challenge to the health service executive, and they're currently working through the implications of this," Mr Martin said.

The first of the 400,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are due to arrive here in the coming weeks and it was expected GPs would begin vaccinating people over 85 with it from February 15

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has now asked the HSE to come up with a new plan.

It is understood that this could involve groups of GPs coming together in one hub to give vaccines to as many people as possible at once.

Sinn Féin health spokesperson David Cullinane described the decision as a "major setback" in the vaccine programme as he said the AstraZenca vaccine uses the same storage system as the flu vaccine, but the other two do not.

“This will have consequences for targets and the speed and efficiency of the rollout," he said.

It came after a day of confusion during which Mr Donnelly appeared to contradict Tánaiste Leo Varadkar on the quarantine rules for people who arrive here from abroad.

When asked if a traveller could socialise with a flatmate who could then go to essential work, Mr Varadkar said: "Yeah, you could, bear in mind, the hierarchy risk at the moment.

"If you're somebody who actually has tested positive, at the moment you're required to self-isolate, but if you're a close contact, you're required to restrict your movement so this is the equivalent of somebody who's close contact."

However, Mr Donnelly said people living in shared accommodation should self-isolate in their rooms for 14 days when returning from abroad.

Meanwhile, the Taoiseach told a meeting of his parliamentary party that there are now concerns there still could be nearly 800 people in hospital at the end of the month.

It is understood a number of Fianna Fáil TDs called on carers to be bumped up the vaccination list, however, Mr Donnelly said if a healthy carer is vaccinated,  it reduced the number of vaccines to be administered to those being cared for in the home.

Mr Varadkar told a meeting of his party that he does not expect to return to level 3 restrictions on March 5, however, he hopes that construction and schools can reopen on a phased basis.

Elsewhere, the ESRI has said Ireland will not return to the pre-Covid rate of unemployment of 5% until the end of 2023, and not the end of 2022, as had been earlier forecast.