A third of nursing homes have an open Covid-19 outbreak

HSE CEO Paul Reid is hoping the HSE will achieve "at least one million Covid vaccines a month" from April, while Anne O’Connor, Chief Operations Officer of the HSE warned of the challenge ahead to catch up with non-Covid care. Photo: Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland

One-third of nursing homes still have an open Covid-19 outbreak, health officials confirmed.

This startling figure demonstrates the pressing need to complete the vaccination programme.

A HSE briefing was told the majority of nursing home residents will be vaccinated by the end of next week, while Paul Reid, head of the HSE, said that more than 4,000 over-85s have received their first jab.

In total 280,581 vaccine jabs were given up to Monday the 15th, including 29,580 fully vaccinated people in long-term care.

Mr Reid said: “From April onwards, we are looking to get at least one million doses a month, we are building the vaccination centres around that.” 

Up to Monday, Ireland received 350,310 doses of all vaccines with 297,330 available for use to that date as some must be held as a buffer for the second dose as per contracts with each company. Of this, 280,581 or 94% were administered.

Some mass vaccination centres' contracts are not yet confirmed, as previously reported by the Irish Examiner, but yesterday Mr Reid insisted all centres will be ready when needed.

Sites were identified by local HSE staff, he said, using criteria including population and the ability of 85% of locals to access the centre within 35 – 40 minutes. Other criteria include parking and space for vaccine bays and vaccine storage.

Large centres will hold up to 50 bays and could vaccinate as many as 5,000 people daily. Smaller centres will have up to 12 booths, vaccinating up to 2,000 daily.

There are now about 7,500 people trained as vaccinators. A national recruitment campaign is being launched this week.

GPs with smaller numbers of over-70s have been asked to “buddy up” with other practices but some have reported difficulties with this.

In response, the HSE chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry said local solutions are being put in place and patients will not be left out even if the start of their vaccination is slightly delayed.

Younger patients with high-risk conditions may be vaccinated at their GP practice instead of going to a centre. This will be worked out individually, he said.

Mr Reid welcomed too the decrease in hospital Covid-19 numbers but cautioned that the easing will be “slower and stickier” than he would like.

This afternoon there were 771 patients in hospital with Covid, and 148 in ICU with another 200 people receiving advanced respiratory support on normal wards.

And looking to later in the year, HSE chief operations officer Anne O’Connor warned of the challenge ahead to catch up with non-Covid care.

There are now 82,051 people on in-patient day case waiting lists and 624,532 on out-patient waiting lists.

She said: “To actually have a dent in the number of people on the waiting list is going to be a particular challenge.” 

Ms O’Connor highlighted the increases in children referred to eating disorder centres over the last few weeks.